TOPCon – Technology options for cost efficient industrial manufacturing

Kafle, Bishal; Goraya, Baljeet Singh; Mack, Sebastian; Feldmann, Frank; Nold, S.; Rentsch, J.

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111100

Cited by 80 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…[10][11][12] PERC makes now for the major part of the c-Si market, substituting to cells based on the aluminum back-surface field (Al-BSF) technology, as illustrated in Figure 1a. The cell efficiency can be increased further by using hightemperature passivating contacts [13][14][15][16] (e.g., tunnel oxide passivated contact, TOPCon, or polysilicon on oxide, POLO) or a alongside schematic drawings of the different cell architectures. [4] b) Efficiency evolution of monolithic perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monolithic Perovskite‐Silicon Tandem Solar Cells: From the Lab to Fab?

Yang

et al. 2022

Advanced Materials

122

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accounts for only ≈3% of global electricity generation. [1] However, PV is experiencing an accelerated growth globally with >130 GW installed in 2020, an acceleration that should continue in the future to provide 20-30% of the global electricity on the 2050 horizon. [2] The key to materializing this ambitious goal is to reduce the cost of PV-generated electricity to make solar energy significantly cheaper than that produced by fossil fuels, and to promote the implementation of storage technologies. [3] Currently, the major cost component of a PV system stems from the balance-ofsystems (BOS). [4] The BOS refers to all the components of a PV system other than the solar module, including wiring, inverters, land, installation, labor, etc. With cell costs typically accounting for less than 20% of the total module cost (and module costs typically account for around 40% at the system level), [4,5] increasing power conversion efficiency at the cell and module level is the most efficient way to reduce the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), provided this efficiency gain comes at affordable manufacturing costs. [6] Increasing the solar module efficiency is even more important for residential rooftops, facades, or other applications where This review focuses on monolithic 2-terminal perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells and discusses key scientific and technological challenges to address in view of an industrial implementation of this technology. The authors start by examining the different crystalline silicon (c-Si) technologies suitable for pairing with perovskites, followed by reviewing recent developments in the field of monolithic 2-terminal perovskite-silicon tandems. Factors limiting the power conversion efficiency of these tandem devices are then evaluated, before discussing pathways to achieve an efficiency of >32%, a value that small-scale devices will likely need to achieve to make tandems competitive. Aspects related to the upscaling of these device active areas to industryrelevant ones are reviewed, followed by a short discussion on module integration aspects. The review then focuses on stability issues, likely the most challenging task that will eventually determine the economic viability of this technology. The final part of this review discusses alternative monolithic perovskite-silicon tandem designs. Finally, key areas of research that should be addressed to bring this technology from the lab to the fab are highlighted.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monolithic Perovskite‐Silicon Tandem Solar Cells: From the Lab to Fab?

Yang

et al. 2022

Advanced Materials

122

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“…The passivating, carrier-selective functionality can be achieved using different materials systems, such as the stack of ultrathin dielectric layers including silicon oxide (SiO x ), [3] aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ), [4][5][6] various transition metal oxides, [3,[5][6][7][8] and a stack of hydrogenated doped and undoped amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers. [9,10] Another effective approach is to use a very thin SiO x layer with a heavily doped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) layer, also known as a tunnel oxide passivated poly-Si contact (TOPCon) [11][12][13][14][15][16] or poly-Si on oxide (POLO). [17][18][19] The high efficiencies obtained with oxide-passivated poly-Si contacts are due to the excellent passivation quality and carrier selectivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Process–Structure–Properties Relationships of Passivating, Electron‐Selective Contacts Formed by Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of Phosphorus‐Doped Polysilicon

Mousumi

Gregory

Ganesan

et al. 2022

Physica Rapid Research Ltrs

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Herein, we investigate the process–structure–properties relationships of in situ phosphorus (P)‐doped polycrystalline silicon (poly‐Si) films by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) for fabricating poly‐Si passivating, electron selective contacts. This high‐throughput in‐line APCVD technique enables to achieve a low‐cost, simple manufacturing process for crystalline silicon (c‐Si) solar cells featuring poly‐Si passivating contact by excluding the need for vacuum/plasma environment, and additional post‐deposition doping steps. A thin layer of this P‐doped poly‐Si is deposited on an ultrathin (1.5 nm) silicon oxide (SiO x ) coated c‐Si substrate to fabricate the passivating contact. This is followed by various post‐deposition treatments, including a high‐temperature annealing step and hydrogenation process. The poly‐Si films are characterized to achieve a better understanding of the impacts of deposition process conditions and post‐deposition treatments on the microstructure, electrical conductivity, passivation quality, and carrier selectivity of the contacts which assists to identify the optimal process conditions. In this work, the optimized annealing process with post‐hydrogenation yields passivating contact with a saturation current density (J 0) of 3 fA cm−2 and an implied open‐circuit voltage (iV OC) of 712 mV on planar c‐Si wafer. Junction resistivity values ranging from 50 to 260 mΩ cm2 are realized for the poly‐Si contacts processed in the optimal annealing condition.

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“… 20 − 22 It is worth noting that in the currently foreseen integration of poly-Si contacts in c-Si solar cells, it is most likely that poly-Si contacts will be submitted to a firing process applied at the very end of the solar cell fabrication to contact the metal paste to the c-Si and/or poly-Si layer. 6 , 23 Thus, it is of utmost importance to better understand the impact of such high-temperature processes on the final properties of poly-Si contacts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Situ Reflectometry and Diffraction Investigation of the Multiscale Structure of p-Type Polysilicon Passivating Contacts for c-Si Solar Cells

Morisset

Famprikis

Haug

et al. 2022

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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The integration of passivating contacts based on a highly doped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) layer on top of a thin silicon oxide (SiO x ) layer has been identified as the next step to further increase the conversion efficiency of current mainstream crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. However, the interrelation between the final properties of poly-Si/SiO x contacts and their fabrication process has not yet been fully unraveled, which is mostly due to the challenge of characterizing thin-film stacks with features in the nanometric range. Here, we apply in situ X-ray reflectometry and diffraction to investigate the multiscale (1 Å–100 nm) structural evolution of poly-Si contacts during annealing up to 900 °C. This allows us to quantify the densification and thinning of the poly-Si layer during annealing as well as to monitor the disruption of the thin SiO x layer at high temperature >800 °C. Moreover, results obtained on a broader range of thermal profiles, including firing with dwell times of a few seconds, emphasize the impact of high thermal budgets on poly-Si contacts’ final properties and thus the importance of ensuring a good control of such high-temperature processes when fabricating c-Si solar cells integrating such passivating contacts. Overall, this study demonstrates the robustness of combining different X-ray elastic scattering techniques (here XRR and GIXRD), which present the unique advantage of being rapid, nondestructive, and applicable on a large sample area, to unravel the multiscale structural evolution of poly-Si contacts in situ during high-temperature processes.

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TOPCon – Technology options for cost efficient industrial manufacturing

Cited by 80 publications

References 22 publications

Monolithic Perovskite‐Silicon Tandem Solar Cells: From the Lab to Fab?

Monolithic Perovskite‐Silicon Tandem Solar Cells: From the Lab to Fab?

Process–Structure–Properties Relationships of Passivating, Electron‐Selective Contacts Formed by Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of Phosphorus‐Doped Polysilicon

In Situ Reflectometry and Diffraction Investigation of the Multiscale Structure of p-Type Polysilicon Passivating Contacts for c-Si Solar Cells

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