Record Large-Area p-Type CZ Production Cell Efficiency of 19.3% Based on LDSE Technology

Hallam, Brett; Wenham, Stuart; Sugianto, Adeline; Mai, Linh; Chong, Chee Mun; Edwards, Matthew; Jordan, David M.; Fath, P.

doi:10.1109/jphotov.2011.2164392

Cited by 58 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…A finer sub-layered structure with two layers with different NiCo ratios might be present in this top ternary layer. Both layers have an average stoichiometry of Me 4 Si where Me stands for Ni or Co. In addition, the ternary silicide alloy observed in the 5-min annealed silicide also matched the Me 4 Si stoichiometry.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…A threshold light intensity was observed during the light assisted plating, below which electroplating occurs with the solar cell under reverse bias. This threshold intensity was found more sensitive to the Ni concentration in the solution than Co because the light absorption of the halogen lamp was dominated by the long wavelength absorption by NiSO 4 . The electrodeposited NiCo alloys were annealed at different temperatures for different time to form the silicide.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…A light intensity of 17000 lux was used during plating except for the study on the light intensity effect. This light intensity was measured in an empty plating setup but 25 The total metal concentration, NiSO 4 and CoSO 4 , is therefore kept constant at 0.2 M. As shown in Table I, the ratio between the two metal species varies for different solutions in this study. A rapid thermal annealing (RTA) furnace with a thermal couple embedded in the carrier was used to anneal the NiCo plated solar cells to form silicide.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Study on the Electrodeposition and Silicidation of Nickel-Cobalt Alloys for Silicon Photovoltaic Cell Metallization

Huang¹

2015

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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Metallization of silicon solar cells using electroplating is of interest recently as a cheaper replacement of silver screen printing. Light assisted electroplating of Nickel-Cobalt (NiCo) alloys were studied on crystalline silicon (Si) solar cells in this paper. The effect of illumination was investigated in conjunction with the light absorption properties of the plating solution, emission spectrum of the light source as well as the plating current. A solution dependent threshold light intensity was observed, beyond which the solar cells were under reverse bias during electroplating. The detailed compositional depth profiles of the silicide layer were studied along the silicidation reaction using microscopic energy dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS). A significant improvement in the performance degradation at high temperature thermal stress was observed for solar cells metalized with the ternary silicide. The cost of solar energy compared with fossil fuel is one of the key determining parameters in its adoption by the market. Therefore, ways of saving the manufacturing cost of silicon solar cells are of great interest. The current manufacturing process involves a screenprinting process to metalize the front side with silver paste. While the screen-printing process has been integrated into the process flow with standard tooling, it typically suffers from conversion loss due to the low conductivity of the paste and low line height-width aspect ratio. In addition, the high price of silver potentially limits the cost reduction of the solar cell.Replacing the screen-printed Ag with electroplated high aspect ratio Cu grids has been proposed decades ago.1,2 This method has recently gained more attention due to the high price of Ag and the easy integration of Cu electroplating with laser patterning. The selective emitter formed by the in-situ doping during laser patterning 3-5 further eases the process control for metallization and has the potential to improve the conversion efficiency of the solar cell.Different Cu metallization schemes involving electroplating have been reported. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Most of these schemes involve the formation of Ni silicide either from electroless or electrolytic deposited Ni. [8][9][10][11][12][15][16][17] The electrolytic deposition process in these reports typically involves light, so called light induced or light assisted electrodeposition. The formation of silicide lowers the contact resistance between the metal and Si 18 and thus improves the solar cell performance. Ni and Co silicidation has been extensively studied for the application in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) contacts.18-23 The Ni silicidation starts at as low as 300• C for metal rich phases, followed by monosilicide phases around 400• C and silicon rich phases above 800• C. 18 Co silicidation follows a similar phase evolution but at a higher temperature. 24 While the low resistive Co disilicide was originally used in CMOS it suffers from poor nucleation rate and interface roughne...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Study on the Electrodeposition and Silicidation of Nickel-Cobalt Alloys for Silicon Photovoltaic Cell Metallization

Huang¹

2015

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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“…Ni electrodeposition on n + -Si (0.01 ohm-cm) was firstly evaluated using Ni plating solution with 0.05 M NiSO 4 . Figure 2a shows the first and subsequent scans in a cyclovoltammetry (CV) study.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The selective emitter formed by the in-situ doping during laser patterning [3][4][5] further improves the conversion efficiency of the solar cell.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Light Assisted Electrodeposition and Silicidation of Ni for Silicon Photovoltaic Cell Metallization

Huang¹,

Rao²,

Fisher³

2015

ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol.

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Light assisted electrodeposition of Ni films was studied on crystalline Si photovoltaic cells. The nucleation, film uniformity and silicidation behaviour were studied at different locations across the busbar and were found to strongly depend on the plating solution, plating current and annealing conditions. The photovoltaic diode can be operated at forward bias or reverse bias during the light assisted electroplating depending on the plating current and light intensity. Suns-Voc of the solar cells was examined at different stages along the process to evaluate the impacts of silicidation on the cell performance. Detailed microscopic analysis was conducted for the metallization stack. The post-silicide degradation in Suns-Voc was correlated with local shunting due to non-optimized silicidation condition. © The Author Solar energy, one of the main types of renewable energy, is critical to help meet the ever-increasing demand for energy from our human society. Among the different solar cells, crystalline silicon solar cells dominate the global solar market. The manufacturing process currently used involves screen-printing for the front metallization using Ag paste. While the screen-printing process has been integrated into the process flow with standard tooling, it typically causes higher wafer breakage and suffers conversion loss due to the lower conductivity, the lower line height-width aspect ratio and the large printing spot size. In addition, the high price of Ag metal drives up the cost of the solar cell and thus delays the break-even point.Replacing the screen-printed Ag with electroplated high aspect ratio Cu lines has been proposed decades ago.1,2 This method has recently gained more and more attention due to the increasing price of Ag and its potentially easy integration with the laser patterning. The selective emitter formed by the in-situ doping during laser patterning [3][4][5] further improves the conversion efficiency of the solar cell.Different Cu metallization schemes involving electroplating have been reported, 6,7 such as electroless deposition of Ni and silicidation, [8][9][10] Cu electrodeposition on printed thin seed layer, 11,12 and electrodeposition of Ni and Cu. 13,14 Among them, most of the schemes involve the formation of Ni silicide either from electroless or electrolytic deposited Ni. The electrolytic deposition process in these reports typically involves light, so called light induced or light assisted electrodeposition. The formation of silicide lowers the contact resistance between the metal and Si and thus improves the solar cell performance.Ni silicidation has been extensively studied for the application in CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) contacts. 15-17The Ni silicidation starts at as low as about 300• C for metal rich phases, followed by monosilicide phases at around 400• C and silicon rich phases at above 800• C. 15 As far as the authors are aware of, all the studies for CMOS applications were performed on extremely thin Ni or Co films fabricated using vacuum depos...

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Manufacturing of VariousPVTechnologies

Lennon

Evans

2016

Photovoltaic Solar Energy

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Record Large-Area p-Type CZ Production Cell Efficiency of 19.3% Based on LDSE Technology

Cited by 58 publications

References 11 publications

A Study on the Electrodeposition and Silicidation of Nickel-Cobalt Alloys for Silicon Photovoltaic Cell Metallization

A Study on the Electrodeposition and Silicidation of Nickel-Cobalt Alloys for Silicon Photovoltaic Cell Metallization

Light Assisted Electrodeposition and Silicidation of Ni for Silicon Photovoltaic Cell Metallization

Manufacturing of VariousPVTechnologies

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