Problem statement: Unmatched combination of emitter and base contact resistance will influence the total performance of the solar cell. To optimize this combination, single crystalline silicon solar cell was analyzed using quasi-one-dimensional transport of electrons and holes in crystalline semiconductor, PC1D. Approach: Effects of the resistance of the emitter and base contact have been investigated with a view to find the best resistive combinations. A range of contact resistance of emitter and base were applied to PC1D software for evaluation. Results: The short circuit current Isc, the open circuit voltage Voc, the maximum power Pm and the fill factor are the observed parameters due to the variations of the resistance on the emitter and base contact. As the two variable factors that take into the account, while evaluating one factor, the other was set to constant value. It is found that as the contact resistance goes higher, the values of the parameters deceased. Conclusion/Recommendations: From the evaluation, the lowest emitter resistance that will give highest value of parameter in the selected ranged is 1 mΩ while for the base contact will be 15 mΩ. The overall investigation on single crystalline silicon solar cell base and emitter contact were done, gives potential parametric suggestion that may assist in the fabrication of high efficiency single crystalline silicon solar cells. A different range of resistance variation are suggested for future related investigation.

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Problem statement: Solar cells are used to capture the photons which generate the energy. However the efficiency of the cells to turn the amount of photon to electricity needs to be high and so the cells enhancement is needed. This involved the whole process of the developing of the cells, thus annealing process is one of the important steps that needs to be optimised. Approach: Only Si solar cells will be discussed and the processes involved would be metal contact screen printing and metal paste co-firing. The contacts were first screen printed with Al paste for the rear side and Ag paste for the front side of the cell. Cells are then fired in the annealing furnace using selected temperature profile. Few sets of temperature profiles were used in every cycle. Results: After the IV characteristics were measured such as Voc, Isc, Pmax and fill factor, it shows that when higher annealing temperature of the profile was used, all the parameter will increase accordingly. However, profile with the highest annealing temperature will burn the paste as it will decrease the quality of the cell. This is considered as over heat to the paste. Conclusion: So by optimising the thermal treatment of the annealing process does improve the performance of the Si solar cell

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