Rear-Surface Passivation Technology for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells: A Versatile Process for Mass Production

Gassenbauer, Yvonne; Ramspeck, K.; Bethmann, B.; Dressler, Katharina; Moschner, J.; Fiedler, M.; Brouwer, E.; Drössler, R.; Lenck, Norbert; Heyer, F.; Feldhaus, M.; Seidl, A.; Müller, Michael; Metz, A.

doi:10.1109/jphotov.2012.2211338

Cited by 29 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…However, boron‐doped p‐type Czochralski‐grown silicon (Cz‐Si) suffers from light‐induced degradation (LID) and is in general more sensitive to metal impurities than n‐type silicon . As an alternative, cell concepts applying a boron emitter using n‐type silicon substrates have been developed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

21.0%‐efficient co‐diffused screen printed n‐type silicon solar cell with rear‐side boron emitter

Wehmeier

Lim

Nowack

et al. 2015

Physica Rapid Research Ltrs

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Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is applied to deposit boron silicate glasses (BSG) acting as boron diffusion source during the fabrication of n‐type silicon solar cells. We characterize the resulting boron‐diffused emitter after boron drive‐in from PECVD BSG by measuring the sheet resistances Rsheet,B and saturation current densities J0,B. For process optimization, we vary the PECVD deposition parameters such as the gas flows of the precursor gases silane and diborane and the PECVD BSG layer thickness. We find an optimum gas flow ratio of SiH4/B2H6= 8% and layer thickness of 40 nm. After boron drive in from these PECVD BSG diffusion sources, a low J0,B values of 21 fA/cm2 is reached for Rsheet,B = 70 Ω/□. The optimized PECVD BSG layers together with a co‐diffusion process are implemented into the fabrication process of passivated emitter and rear totally diffused (PERT) back junction (BJ) cells on n‐type silicon. An independently confirmed energy conversion efficiency of 21.0% is achieved on 15.6 × 15.6 cm2 cell area with a simplified process flow. This is the highest efficiency reported for a co‐diffused n‐type PERT BJ cell using PECVD BSG as diffusion source. A loss analysis shows a small contribution of 0.13 mW/cm2 of the boron diffusion to the recombination loss proving the high quality of this diffusion source. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

21.0%‐efficient co‐diffused screen printed n‐type silicon solar cell with rear‐side boron emitter

Wehmeier

Lim

Nowack

et al. 2015

Physica Rapid Research Ltrs

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“…The required O i concentration is very low regarding typical Cz-Si material but can be reached for block-cast mc-Si or cast-mono material. In fact, very recently, there have been several companies reporting efficiencies exceeding 20% for PERC cells on p-type Cz-Si [13]- [15]. Based on our simulations, one might conjecture that these companies either used oxygen-lean Cz-Si, and/or they applied some kind of curing treatment.…”

Section: Boron-oxygen-related Impuritiesmentioning

confidence: 87%

Impurity-related limitations of next-generation industrial silicon solar cells

Schmidt¹,

Lim²,

Walter³

et al. 2013

2012 IEEE 38th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) PART 2

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We apply highly predictive 2-D device simulation to assess the impact of various impurities on the performance of nextgeneration industrial silicon solar cells. We show that the lightinduced boron-oxygen recombination center limits the efficiency to 19.2% on standard Czochralski-grown silicon material. Curing by illumination at elevated temperature is shown to increase the efficiency limit by +1.5% absolute to 20.7%. In the second part of this paper, we examine the impact of the most important metallic impurities on the cell efficiency for p-and n-type cells. It is widely believed that solar cells on n-type silicon are less sensitive to metallic impurities. We show that this statement is not generally valid as it is merely based on the properties of Fe but does not account for the properties of Co, Cr, and Ni.

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“…Over past decades, photovoltaic market was dominated by standard crystalline silicon solar cells which were based on boron-doped crystalline silicon wafers with processes of phosphorus diffusion, silicon nitride antireflection coatings on front side, screen-printed silver past on front side, and aluminum paste on rear side forming a back surface field (Al-BSF). In recent years, the continued bleakness of photovoltaic industry has forced manufacturers to further increase conversion efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs so as to survive in escalated fierce competition [1][2][3]. At present, passivated emitter and rear cells (PERC), which were firstly reported in 1989, are attracting more and more attentions [4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, there are few researchers to report the comparison of PERC with silicon oxynitride applied to monocrystalline silicon solar cells (Cz-Si) and multicrystalline silicon solar cells (Mc-Si) [2]. People are puzzled as to how to develop next-generation industrial solar cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of the Electrical Properties of PERC Approach Applied to Monocrystalline and Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Wang

Yang

2016

International Journal of Photoenergy

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At present, the improvement in performance and the reduction of cost for crystalline silicon solar cells are a key for photovoltaic industry. Passivated emitter and rear cells are the most promising technology for next-generation commercial solar cells. The efficiency gains of passivated emitter and rear cells obtained on monocrystalline silicon wafer and multicrystalline silicon wafer are different. People are puzzled as to how to develop next-generation industrial cells. In this paper, both monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon solar cells for commercial applications with passivated emitter and rear cells structure were fabricated by using cost-effective process. It was found that passivated emitter and rear cells are more effective for monocrystalline silicon solar cells than for multicrystalline silicon solar cells. This study gives some hints about the industrial-scale mass production of passivated emitter and rear cells process.

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Rear-Surface Passivation Technology for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells: A Versatile Process for Mass Production

Cited by 29 publications

References 7 publications

21.0%‐efficient co‐diffused screen printed n‐type silicon solar cell with rear‐side boron emitter

21.0%‐efficient co‐diffused screen printed n‐type silicon solar cell with rear‐side boron emitter

Impurity-related limitations of next-generation industrial silicon solar cells

Comparison of the Electrical Properties of PERC Approach Applied to Monocrystalline and Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells

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