Interdigitated backside buried contact solar cells

Backside contact solar cells, such as point contact and interdigitated back contact designs, have demonstrated remarkable performance; however, they often require four to six photolithographic steps to fabricate the rear surface. The buried-contact solar cell technology offers a means to substitute photolithographic processing with laser-lithographic processing, which is currently utilized in large-scale commercial production of BP Solar´s Saturn solar cells. In this paper, we describe experimental work to analyze and correct a shunt resistance problem found in interdigitated backside buried contact (IBBC) solar cells. Preliminary results show that IBBC solar cells have potential for high efficiency.