Progress on large area n-type silicon solar cells with front laser doping and a rear emitter

Urueña, A.; Aleman, Monica; Cornagliotti, Emanuele; Sharma, Aashish; Haslinger, Michael J.; Tous, Loïc; Russell, Richard; John, Joachim; Duerinckx, Filip; Szlufcik, Jozef

doi:10.1002/pip.2767

Cited by 16 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Additional optimization of this structure improved the efficiency up to 22.5% [51]. More details on the development of the selective FSF structure that led to 22.5% efficiency is to be found in [52]. In the latter case, V oc increased to 689 mV, showing the potential of the Al 2 O 3 /SiO x stack developed here to suppress surface SRH recombination and thus sustain a high V oc , despite the lack of passivated contacts.…”

Section: Best I-v Results and Light-induced Degradationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Large-Area n-Type PERT Solar Cells Featuring Rear p⁺ Emitter Passivated by ALD Al₂O₃

Cornagliotti

Urueña

Aleman

et al. 2015

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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We present large-area n-type PERT solar cells featuring a rear boron emitter passivated by a stack of ALD Al 2 O 3 and PECVD SiO x . After illustrating the technological and fundamental advantages of such a device architecture, we show that the Al 2 O 3 /SiO x stack employed to passivate the boron emitter is unaffected by the rear metallization processes and can suppress the Shockley-Read-Hall surface recombination current to values below 2 fA/cm 2 , provided that the Al 2 O 3 thickness is larger than 7 nm. Efficiencies of 21.5% on 156-mm commercial-grade Cz-Si substrates are demonstrated in this study, when the rear Al 2 O 3 /SiO x passivation is applied in combination with a homogeneous front-surface field (FSF). The passivation stack developed herein can sustain cell efficiencies in excess of 22% and V o c above 685 mV when a selective FSF is implemented, despite the absence of passivated contacts. Finally, we demonstrate that such cells do not suffer from light-induced degradation.

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Section: Best I-v Results and Light-induced Degradationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Large-Area n-Type PERT Solar Cells Featuring Rear p⁺ Emitter Passivated by ALD Al₂O₃

Cornagliotti

Urueña

Aleman

et al. 2015

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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“…A key contributor to the improved surface passivation includes the injection of minority carriers from the infrared lamps and rapid cooling during belt‐furnace processes . Such processes have been used to fabricate record n‐type Passivated Emitter, Rear Totally diffused solar cells at 22.5% .…”

Section: Gettering and Hydrogenation In High‐efficiency N‐type Technomentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of hydrogenation and gettering in enhancing the efficiency of next‐generation Si solar cells: An industrial perspective

Hallam

Chen

Kim

et al. 2017

Physica Status Solidi (a)

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Phone: þ61 2 9385 0411, Fax: þ61 2 9385 7762We discuss the importance of gettering and hydrogenation for next-generation silicon solar cells in the context of industrial cell fabrication. Gettering and hydrogenation play a vital role for p-type cell technologies in improving the silicon material's minority charge carrier lifetime. These mechanisms are naturally incorporated during screen-printed cell fabrication through the phosphorus emitter diffusion, silicon nitride deposition and subsequent metallisation firing processes. While the transition towards emitters with lower dopant concentrations and/or thermal oxide passivation can reduce surface recombination, it can negatively impact the ability to getter common impurities such as iron. For cell technologies with alternative low-temperature metallisation approaches, the ability to hydrogenate bulk defects is greatly reduced. Ultrahigh efficiency n-type technologies tend to use heterojunction structures rather than diffused layers, but in doing so, do not benefit from phosphorus gettering. Also, particularly for amorphous silicon-based heterojunction structures, the imposed temperature constraints strongly limit the ability to passivate bulk defects. As a result, high-efficiency n-type technologies rely on the use of 'high-quality' wafers or would require the deliberate addition of gettering and hydrogenation processes before cell fabrication. A potential high-efficiency hybrid homojunction/heterojunction structure is then discussed that could naturally enable gettering and bulk hydrogenation throughout cell fabrication.Calibrated implied open circuit voltage (V oc ) map of a p-type mono-crystalline wafer highlighting the impact of prehydrogenating the top half of the wafer.

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“…Industrial crystalline silicon solar cells (eg, passivated emitter rear totally diffused (PERT) cells, passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) cells, or silicon heterojunction solar (SHJ) cells) use highly doped silicon layers . The high doping concentration of these n + or p + silicon layers is very effective to lower the contact resistivity ( ρ c ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passivating electron‐selective contacts for silicon solar cells based on an a‐Si:H/TiO_x stack and a low work function metal

Cho

Melskens

Debucquoy

et al. 2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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In this work, the ATOM (intrinsic a-Si:H/TiO x /low work function metal) structure is investigated to realize high-performance passivating electron-selective contacts for crystalline silicon solar cells. The absence of a highly doped Si region in this contact structure is meant to reduce the optoelectrical losses. We show that a low contact resistivity (ρ c ) can be obtained by the combined effect of a low work function metal, such as calcium (Φ 2.9 eV), and Fermi-level depinning in the metal-insulator-semiconductor contact structure (where in our case TiO x acts as the insulator on the intrinsic a-Si:H passivating layer). TiO x grown by ALD is effective to achieve not only a low ρ c but also good passivation properties. As an electron contact in silicon heterojunction solar cells, inserting interfacial TiO x at the i-a-Si:H/Ca interface significantly enhances the solar cell conversion efficiency. Consequently, the champion solar cell with the ATOM contact achieves a V OC of 711 mV, FF of 72.9%, J SC of 35.1 mA/cm 2 , and an efficiency of 18.2%. The achievement of a high V OC and reasonable FF without the need for a highly doped Si layer serves as a valuable proof of concept for future developments on passivating electron-selective contacts using this structure.

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Progress on large area n-type silicon solar cells with front laser doping and a rear emitter

Cited by 16 publications

References 41 publications

Large-Area n-Type PERT Solar Cells Featuring Rear p⁺ Emitter Passivated by ALD Al₂O₃

Large-Area n-Type PERT Solar Cells Featuring Rear p⁺ Emitter Passivated by ALD Al₂O₃

The role of hydrogenation and gettering in enhancing the efficiency of next‐generation Si solar cells: An industrial perspective

Passivating electron‐selective contacts for silicon solar cells based on an a‐Si:H/TiO_x stack and a low work function metal

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Progress on large area n-type silicon solar cells with front laser doping and a rear emitter

Cited by 16 publications

References 41 publications

Large-Area n-Type PERT Solar Cells Featuring Rear p+ Emitter Passivated by ALD Al2 O3

Large-Area n-Type PERT Solar Cells Featuring Rear p+ Emitter Passivated by ALD Al2 O3

The role of hydrogenation and gettering in enhancing the efficiency of next‐generation Si solar cells: An industrial perspective

Passivating electron‐selective contacts for silicon solar cells based on an a‐Si:H/TiOx stack and a low work function metal

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Product

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Large-Area n-Type PERT Solar Cells Featuring Rear p⁺ Emitter Passivated by ALD Al₂O₃

Large-Area n-Type PERT Solar Cells Featuring Rear p⁺ Emitter Passivated by ALD Al₂O₃

Passivating electron‐selective contacts for silicon solar cells based on an a‐Si:H/TiO_x stack and a low work function metal