Industrial Si solar cells with Cu based plated contacts

Horzel, Jörg; Bay, N.; Passig, M.; Kühnlein, H.; Yuan, Shu; Verlinden, Pierre J.

doi:10.1109/pvsc.2015.7355650

Cited by 6 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…At the time Pluto modules were released into the market, Suntech claimed to be performing advanced levels of environmental testing on its products, and so given these reports it would appear that even if the Cu could penetrate through LIP Ni diffusion barriers in Pluto modules, the electrical performance of modules was not significantly degraded. This conclusion is also supported by a number of other studies which have reported that Ni/Cu plated modules, where the contact regions in the cells had been formed by short pulse laser ablation, have also passed the thermal cycling and damp heat test sequences required by the IEC 61215 standard …”

Section: Challenges For Copper‐plated Silicon Solar Cellssupporting

confidence: 65%

“…For a Cu‐plated metallisation process to be commercially viable, plated cells will need to achieve similar or superior efficiencies to comparative screen‐printed cells. Many reports have highlighted the potential of Cu‐plated cells to out‐perform screen‐printed cells, due to their narrower fingers resulting in reduced shading and the ability of Ni to form ohmic contact to Si surfaces with P concentrations as low as 4 × 10 19 cm ‐3 and potentially even lower . However, these attributes only provide an advantage if other sources of loss are not introduced during the metallisation process.…”

Section: Challenges For Copper‐plated Silicon Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Potential efficiency and yield gains for Cu‐plated cells over screen‐printed cells have also been frequently suggested. These gains include reduced front surface shading and the electrical contacting of more lightly doped emitters . Self‐alignment of Cu‐plated contacts may also be advantageous for more complex cell structures .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges facing copper‐plated metallisation for silicon photovoltaics: Insights from integrated circuit technology development

Lennon

Colwell

Rodbell

2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Copper‐plated interconnects were widely adopted for volume manufacture of integrated circuits after more than a decade of intensive research to demonstrate that use of Cu would not impact device reliability. However, although Cu‐plated metallisation promises significantly reduced costs for Si photovoltaics, its adoption in manufacturing has not gained the same traction. This review identifies some key challenges facing the introduction of Cu‐plated metallisation for Si photovoltaics. These include the following: (1) increased carrier recombination due to the use of Cu for metal contact formation; (2) reduced module reliability due to adhesion or contact integrity failures; and (3) limited availability of cost‐effective processes and equipment for metal plating. For integrated circuits, Cu's low electrical resistance and high resistance to electromigration provided an impetus for the large investment in process development that was required to realise Cu‐plated interconnects. However, the technical advantages of using Cu for Si solar cell contacts are not as compelling, as solar cells can tolerate larger feature sizes thus reducing the criticality of the contact metal's conductivity and electromigration properties. Additionally, for Si photovoltaics, low cost is paramount, and new challenges arise from the need for modules to absorb light and operate in the field for 25+ years in diverse outdoor climates. However, with the scale of Si photovoltaic manufacturing expected to increase dramatically in the next decade, the use of large quantities of silver for cell metallisation will provide an incentive to address reliability concerns regarding the use of Cu for Si photovoltaic metallisation.

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Section: Challenges For Copper‐plated Silicon Solar Cellssupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Challenges For Copper‐plated Silicon Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Challenges facing copper‐plated metallisation for silicon photovoltaics: Insights from integrated circuit technology development

Lennon

Colwell

Rodbell

2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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“…Nearly all literature results on PV modules in extended DH tests consider only modules with Ag‐screenprinted contacts. A few published results on DH testing of Cu‐plated contacts do exist, however, they tend to simply demonstrate that small numbers of encapsulated Cu‐plated cells are capable of passing DH 1000 with minimal degradation 20,21 . Only a few extend the test beyond 1000 h 22,23 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Degradation of copper‐plated silicon solar cells with damp heat stress

Karas

Michaelson²,

Munoz³

et al. 2020

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Crystalline silicon solar cells with copper-plated contacts are fabricated, encapsulated in ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), and subject to extended damp heat stress (85 C and 85% relative humidity). We source cell precursors from several different cell manufacturers and employ several different patterning methods of the silicon nitride layer and deposit a plated front contact stack of nickel, copper, and tin using light-induced plating. Across different Cu-plated samples, we find similar degradation that impacts

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“…Among the most notable alternatives to the conventional technology are electrochemical plating 4 – 6 , print-on-print 3 , aerosol fine line printing 7 , 8 , and metal - wrap - through contact approaches 9 , some of which have already been transferred or trialed in cell production lines. However, these approaches still suffer from relatively modest aspect-ratios and are only effective on certain surfaces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microchannel contacting of crystalline silicon solar cells

Bullock

Ota

Wang

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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There is tremendous interest in reducing losses caused by the metal contacts in silicon photovoltaics, particularly the optical and resistive losses of the front metal grid. One commonly sought-after goal is the creation of high aspect-ratio metal fingers which provide an optically narrow and low resistance pathway to the external circuit. Currently, the most widely used metal contact deposition techniques are limited to widths and aspect-ratios of ~40 μm and ~0.5, respectively. In this study, we introduce the use of a micropatterned polydimethylsiloxane encapsulation layer to form narrow (~20 μm) microchannels, with aspect-ratios up to 8, on the surface of solar cells. We demonstrate that low temperature metal pastes, electroless plating and atomic layer deposition can all be used within the microchannels. Further, we fabricate proof-of-concept structures including simple planar silicon heterojunction and homojunction solar cells. While preliminary in both design and efficiency, these results demonstrate the potential of this approach and its compatibility with current solar cell architectures.

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Industrial Si solar cells with Cu based plated contacts

Cited by 6 publications

References 2 publications

Challenges facing copper‐plated metallisation for silicon photovoltaics: Insights from integrated circuit technology development

Challenges facing copper‐plated metallisation for silicon photovoltaics: Insights from integrated circuit technology development

Degradation of copper‐plated silicon solar cells with damp heat stress

Microchannel contacting of crystalline silicon solar cells

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