The Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC): From conception to mass production

Green, Martin A.

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2015.06.055

Cited by 365 publications

(194 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Since the Toledo modules were manufactured, Si PV module efficiencies have increased considerably through the use of a rear passivation layer with localised contacts. This passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) design, which was first reported by Blakers et al, is now being manufactured in increasing volumes in China . The reduced recombination current density in these cells makes them more sensitive to impurities in the Si such as B‐O defects and metal impurities.…”

Section: Challenges For Copper‐plated Silicon Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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 Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…The authors wish to make the following changes to their paper [1]. Figure1 is replaced by a new one, which has the same meaning as previous one, but different style.…”

Section: D-pc Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the current PV market is dominated by crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells because of their high efficiency and steadily decreasing manufacturing cost [1,2], thin-film silicon solar cells (TFSC) including hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) and microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H) are still promising candidates for special applications. For example, flexible a-Si:H-based solar cells can be used for military applications, clothing-integrated photovoltaics for portable electronic devices, irregularly-shaped building surfaces, and so on [3][4][5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photonic Structures for Light Trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells: Design and Experiment

et al. 2017

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Abstract:One of the foremost challenges in designing thin-film silicon solar cells (TFSC) is devising efficient light-trapping schemes due to the short optical path length imposed by the thin absorber thickness. The strategy relies on a combination of a high-performance back reflector and an optimized texture surface, which are commonly used to reflect and scatter light effectively within the absorption layer, respectively. In this paper, highly promising light-trapping structures based on a photonic crystal (PC) for TFSCs were investigated via simulation and experiment. Firstly, a highly-reflective one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D-PC) was designed and fabricated. Then, two types of 1D-PC-based back reflectors (BRs) were proposed: Flat 1D-PC with random-textured aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) or random-textured 1D-PC with AZO. These two newly-designed BRs demonstrated not only high reflectivity and sufficient conductivity, but also a strong light scattering property, which made them efficient candidates as the electrical contact and back reflector since the intrinsic losses due to the surface plasmon modes of the rough metal BRs can be avoided. Secondly, conical two-dimensional photonic crystal (2D-PC)-based BRs were investigated and optimized for amorphous a-SiGe:H solar cells. The maximal absorption value can be obtained with an aspect ratio of 1/2 and a period of 0.75 µm. To improve the full-spectral optical properties of solar cells, a periodically-modulated PC back reflector was proposed and experimentally demonstrated in the a-SiGe:H solar cell. This periodically-modulated PC back reflector, also called the quasi-crystal structure (QCS), consists of a large periodic conical PC and a randomly-textured Ag layer with a feature size of 500-1000 nm. The large periodic conical PC enables conformal growth of the layer, while the small feature size of Ag can further enhance the light scattering. In summary, a comprehensive study of the design, simulation and fabrication of 1D-PC-and 2D-PC-based back reflectors for TFSCs was carried out. Total absorption and device performance enhancement were achieved with the novel PC light-trapping systems because of their high reflectivity or high scattering property. Further research is necessary to illuminate the optimal structure design of PC-based back reflectors and high solar cell efficiency.

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“…The device is composed of a textured Si wafer with doped layers/regions on both sides of the wafer. PERC-type cSi cells are created either by diffused or ion-implanted impurity doping [40], followed by dielectric passivation-layer deposition, and capping of the rear dielectric by full-area metallization. Both front and electrical rear contacts are locally adhered to the silicon wafer underneath.…”

Section: Modelling Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Evaluation of the Rear Contacts of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells by Coupled Electromagnetic and Statistical Ray-Optics Modeling

Dabirian

Morales‐Masis

Haug

et al. 2017

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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The Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC): From conception to mass production

Cited by 365 publications

References 35 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

Photonic Structures for Light Trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells: Design and Experiment

Optical Evaluation of the Rear Contacts of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells by Coupled Electromagnetic and Statistical Ray-Optics Modeling

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