Progress in low-cost n-type silicon solar cell technology

Author

Geerligs, L.J. ; Romijn, I.G. ; Burgers, A.R. ; Guillevin, N. ; Weeber, A.W. ; Bultman, J.H. ; Wang, Hongfang ; Lang, Fang ; Zhao, Wenchao ; Li, Gaofei ; Hu, Zhiyan ; Xiong, Jingfeng ; Vlooswijk, Ard

Author_Institution

ECN Solar Energy, Petten, Netherlands

fYear

2012

fDate

3-8 June 2012

Abstract

This article will review our recent progress in development of high-efficiency cells on n-type monocrystalline Si wafers. With boron-doped front emitter, phosphorous BSF, and screen-printed metallisation, at this moment such cells reach an efficiency of over 19%. We describe recent results of processing with reduced front contact area, and improved BSF and improved rear surface passivation, which are key parameters that limit the cell efficiency. The improved processing leads to an efficiency of 20%. The cell process has also been adopted for fabrication of metal-wrap-through back-contact cells. Without the improved contact recombination and BSF, an MWT cell efficiency of 19.7% is reached, 0.3% higher than the corresponding `standard´ (non-back-contact) cells.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; metallisation; passivation; silicon; solar cells; MWT cell; Si; boron-doped front emitter; contact recombination; efficiency 19.7 percent; efficiency 20 percent; high-efficiency cells; low-cost n-type silicon solar cell technology; metal-wrap-through back-contact cells; n-type monocrystalline silicon wafers; phosphorous BSF; rear surface passivation; screen-printed metallisation; standard nonback-contact cells; Metallization; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Silicon; Standards; bifacial; n-type; photovoltaic cells; silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2012 38th IEEE

Conference_Location

Austin, TX

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0064-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2012.6317923

Filename

6317923