Adaptation of monocrystalline solar cell process to multicrystalline materials

Due to its low cost and high possibilities, multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) is an attractive substrate to produce solar cells. Trying to reach high efficiencies with a simple and repetitive method, we adapted a standard monocrystalline process to multicrystalline material. Different gettering methods (Phosphorous, Aluminium and P and Al co-gettering) have been studied. In our laboratory, 15.2% efficiency have been achieved to date. PC1D simulations shows that, with a reduction of bulk recombination and a better front and rear passivation schemes, efficiencies higher than 18% could be obtained.