A novel two step metallization of Ni/Cu for low concentrator c-Si solar cells

Chaudhari, Vikrant A.; Solanki, Chetan Singh

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2010.06.032

Cited by 40 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…However, Ni has the ability to provide a lower contact resistance to doped silicon and it works well as a diffusion barrier [28,36]. Low resistivity ohmic contacts can be made by initiating a low temperature sintering process after Ni deposition [8,11,[36][37][38]. The basic requirement of the Ni seeding layer formation is a uniform and adequate thickness over the entire front grid.…”

Section: Ni Seed Layer Depositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More than 20% efficiencies have already been achieved at Fraunhofer ISE, Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC), Kaneka, Roth & Rau Research and Schott Solar [78,[80][81][82][83]. Many research institutes have been involved in investigating metallization schemes composed of Ni/Cu metal stacks [8,10,13,42,[84][85][86][87][88][89][90].…”

Section: Current Industrial Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ni/Cu contact formations involve two major steps: a Ni seed layer formation followed by a Cu metal deposition as a front electrode. The Cu metal stack over the Ni layer plays the role of the main contact to the front of the cell [7][8][9][10][11][12]. The Cu front metals stack is usually formed by an electro-plating process, which is a well-developed plating technique and can only be applied to conductors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Nickel/Copper Contacts

Rehman¹,

Lee²

2015

Solar Cells - New Approaches and Reviews

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In silicon solar cell technology, metallization plays an integral part in outlining the cost and efficiency of solar cells. Indeed, the development of better techniques for the metallization of silicon solar cells is vital for achieving higher efficiencies. Presently, screen-printed contacts are primarily employed in photovoltaic industry as they can be realized easily with high throughputs. However, screen-printing technology has the draw-backs of higher contact resistance and lower aspect ratios, degrading the solar cells performance. In recent years, an overall decrease in the photovoltaic module price index has occurred, while the higher cost of silver has disturbed this decrease adversely [ ]. The future of solar cell technology will involve decreasing the wafer s thickness as well as decreasing the use of silver according to the standards set out by the international technology roadmap for photovoltaics ITRPV [ ]. Metal contacts with superior electrical performance and lower production costs are vital for photovoltaic industrial production. In short, the pressing process of screen printing technology for thinner silicon wafers, along with expensive silver pastes, needs to be replaced by a fresh metallization technology. A series of workshops have been dedicated to the metallization of crystalline silicon solar cells, where various metallization techniques have already been inquired [ -]. All of these meetings have helped in understanding and reforming present-day advancements in solar cell metallization techniques.Among the capable metallization techniques, contacts composed of nickel/copper Ni/Cu metal stacks are considered to be one of the most feasible candidates for future metallization technologies. The use of such metal stacks offers precise and low contact resistance and also helps in improving solar cells efficiency [ ]. The most important feature is that the technique can be realized with lower material costs. Ni/Cu contact formations involve two major steps a Ni seed layer formation followed by a Cu metal deposition as a front electrode. The Cu metal stack over the Ni layer plays the role of the main contact to the front of the cell [ -]. The Cu © 2015 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. front metals stack is usually formed by an electro-plating process, which is a well-developed plating technique and can only be applied to conductors. Cu has also been deposited by an electroless plating process, but it also requires a seed layer at the silicon surface [ , ]. An auto-catalytic method of depositing Ni-phosphorus or Ni-boron by electroless plating bath compositions can be adopted to contact the semiconducting surface of silicon [ -]. The use of a seed layer i.e., Ni can help to plate metal stacks on semiconducting or even nonconducting materials. Ap...

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Section: Ni Seed Layer Depositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Industrial Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Nickel/Copper Contacts

Rehman¹,

Lee²

2015

Solar Cells - New Approaches and Reviews

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Among the devices, it is guessed that demand for the photovoltaic solar cells rises rapidly, because solar energy is semipermanent and is used anywhere under sunlight. However, there are various problems in solar cells, such as material cost, process cost, and power generation efficiency, and a number of attempts have been made to solve these problems [1]- [5]. Photoelectrochemical cells (PECs) have been also studied extensively [6]- [10], because they can produce not only electricity but also chemical energies such as hydrogen and oxygen by water splitting [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical and Photoelectrochemical Properties of Nano-Islands of Zinc and Niobium Oxides Deposited on Aluminum Thin Film by RF Magnetron Reactive Sputtering

Sajiki¹,

Benino²,

Nanba³

et al. 2015

MSA

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Zinc oxide (ZnO) and niobium oxide (NbO x ) with a nano-island structure were deposited by a sputtering method on Al-coated glass substrates. Cells with a (ZnO or NbO x )/Al/glass|KNO 3 aq.|Al/ glass structure were assembled, and electrochemical and photoelectrochemical properties were evaluated. The ZnO and NbO x electrodes had higher electrode potentials than the counter Al/glass electrode, and electron flows from the counter electrode to the ZnO and NbO x electrodes through the external circuit were commonly confirmed. In the ZnO-based cell, only faint photocurrent generation was seen, where Zn and Al elution from the ZnO electrode was found. In the NbO xbased cell, however, stable generation of electricity was successfully achieved, and electrode corrosion was not recognized even in microscopic observations. A photoelectrochemical conversion model was proposed based on potential-pH diagrams. In the case of nano-island structures formed at shorter NbO x deposition time, it was concluded that the photoelectrochemical reactions, which were proceeded in the immediate vicinity of the boundary among nano-islands, substrate, and electrolyte solution, were predominant for the photoelectrochemical conversion, and in the case of film structures with longer deposition time, the predominant reactions took place at the film surface.

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“…Thus, the use of solar cells employing photovoltaic effect was introduced, in which satisfy the desired purposes. Among the commercially available solar cell technologies, thin film solar cells such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium diselenide (CuInSe 2 ) are most famous [1][2][3]. However, CdTe is not suitable for the alternative green energy because cadmium is highly toxic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical and optical studies on ZnO films by SOL-GEL

Nurulfadzilah

Tawil

Ani

et al. 2014

2014 IEEE International Conference on Semiconductor Electronics (ICSE2014)

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Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a new material used in electronics applications such as spintronics, diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) and thin films. In this paper, the findings in fabrication and characterization of ZnO nanoparticles are reported. ZnO thin films were deposited onto glass substrates using a spin coating techniques at different pre-annealing temperatures. The optical transmittance measurement of the ZnO nanostructures was examined using an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer (UV-Vis) with wavelength ranging from 300-800 nm. On the other hand, the topography and film roughness were, measured by an atomic force microscope (AFM). The surface morphologies was obtained using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and showed that the ZnO nanoparticles are distributed uniformly.

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A novel two step metallization of Ni/Cu for low concentrator c-Si solar cells

Cited by 40 publications

References 35 publications

Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Nickel/Copper Contacts

Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Nickel/Copper Contacts

Electrochemical and Photoelectrochemical Properties of Nano-Islands of Zinc and Niobium Oxides Deposited on Aluminum Thin Film by RF Magnetron Reactive Sputtering

Physical and optical studies on ZnO films by SOL-GEL

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