Large Area Copper Plated Silicon Solar Cell Exceeding 19.5% Efficiency

Tous, Loïc; Russell, Richard; Das, J.; Labie, Riet; Ngamo, M.; Horzel, Jörg; Philipsen, Harold; Sniekers, Jeroen; Vandermissen, K.; Brekel, L. van den; Janssens, Tom; Aleman, Monica; Dorp, Dennis H. van; Poortmans, Jozef; Mertens, R.

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2012.05.008

Cited by 45 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…For standard cells, the adjustment of the BSF formation is freely possible which results in a full V OC potential yield. Plating the full stack Ni/Cu/Ag with a subsequent annealing is the optimal and cost efficient process and has been shown to allow both ideal electrical performance and high peel strength [3,4,8]. A route to industrial implementation is thereby created.…”

Section: For Best Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…nickel plated onto silicon for contact formation). For good adhesion and low contact resistivity, an annealing step either directly after the first nickel plating or after the full stack plating is recommended [7,8]. Hereby the annealing parameters have to be chosen carefully over-annealing during the silicide formation may cause shunting [9,10].…”

Section: Shuntingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design Rules for Solar Cells with Plated Metallization

et al. 2015

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This work deals with requirements regarding the solar cell process that allow or facilitate the introduction of fabrication processes for front side metallization. By taking experience with plating on solar cells both from the literature and from practical lab work, design rules for the solar cell and the plating process have been derived. Regarding the surface texture, small features (e.g., random pyramids < 5 μm) have been found beneficial for plating processes both on printed seed layers and directly on silicon. A dense, pinhole-free anti-reflective coating suppresses so-called ghost plating as well as careful handling in production. Shunting, which is possible for laser edge isolation can be prevented by applying wet chemical edge isolation. An adjusted soldering process which brings in high energy within a short time is recommended. Infrared or inductive soldering are ideal for the connection of plated surfaces with ribbon. For plating on paste it is recommended that using plating electrolytes with pH>2 result in a good adhesion of the seed layer on the silicon surface. Further the glass content in the silver paste and the size of the glass particles have a big influence on the adhesion. A high glass content and small particles are beneficial for a following plating process. For direct plating on silicon an ablation of the ARC with a 355 nm ps-laser is the best option for adhesion

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Section: For Best Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Shuntingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Rules for Solar Cells with Plated Metallization

et al. 2015

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“…Nickel mono-silicide (NiSi) has been discussed as the favored metal silicide for formation of ohmic contacts in silicon solar cells due to a low silicide formation temperature and low silicon consumption [3]. In addition, nickel can be selectively plated to form self-aligned contacts and has been shown to be an effective barrier to copper diffusion [4]. However, in order to form this NiSi ohmic contact on a silicon solar cell, the ARC layer, typically silicon nitride (SiN x ), must be removed in order to expose a clean silicon surface for nickel plating.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved contact formation for large area solar cells using the alternative seed layer (ASL) process

Michaelson¹,

Munoz²,

Wang³

et al. 2012

2012 38th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference

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Light induced plating (LIP) chemistry and tooling that are scalable to industrial solar cell processing are used to deposit layers of nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), and tin (Sn) on previously defined front grid patterns of large area solar cells. The Ni plated layer is in direct contact with the silicon surface enabling the formation of a nickel silicide (NiSi) contact after annealing. This Alternative Seed Layer (ASL) process involves many variables that influence the formation of the NiSi contact. This paper will investigate two different aspects of the contact formation: 1) the position of the annealing step in the process flow; i.e. after Ni plating or after Ni/Cu plating and 2) the resulting contact formation for monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si) versus polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) substrates. A decrease in the series resistance (R series ) measurement and increase in efficiency after annealing has been demonstrated for both monoSi and poly-Si cells with Ni only and Ni/Cu annealing.

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“…Thus, a selective emitter design could improve the effi-30 2 ciency of black Si solar cells. In order to achieve a selective emitter without the use of multiple high-temperature process steps and photolithography, laser doping and subsequent self-aligned Ni/Cu-plating has been suggested by several groups [22,23,24]. The laser-doped selective emitter (LDSE) process offers excellent sheet resistance control, self-alignment of front metal contacts to the 35 local highly doped areas and a fast, low-temperature process scalable to industrial throughput.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Black silicon laser-doped selective emitter solar cell with 18.1% efficiency

Davidsen

et al. 2016

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

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We report fabrication of nanostructured, laser-doped selective emitter (LDSE) silicon solar cells with power conversion efficiency of 18.1 % and a fill factor (FF) of 80.1 %. The nanostructured solar cells were realized through a single step, mask-less, scalable reactive ion etch (RIE) texturing of the surface. The selective emitter was formed by means of laser doping using a continuous wave (CW) laser and subsequent contact formation using light-induced plating of Ni and Cu. The combination of RIE-texturing and a LDSE cell design has to our knowledge not been demonstrated previously. The resulting efficiency indicates a promising potential, especially considering that the cell reported in this work is the first proof-of-concept and that the fabricated cell is not fully optimized in terms of plating, emitter sheet resistance and surface passivation. Due to the scalable nature and simplicity of RIE-texturing as well as the LDSE process, we consider this specific combination a promising candidate for a cost-efficient process for future Si solar cells.

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Large Area Copper Plated Silicon Solar Cell Exceeding 19.5% Efficiency

Cited by 45 publications

References 6 publications

Design Rules for Solar Cells with Plated Metallization

Design Rules for Solar Cells with Plated Metallization

Improved contact formation for large area solar cells using the alternative seed layer (ASL) process

Black silicon laser-doped selective emitter solar cell with 18.1% efficiency

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