Towards a Simplified 20% Efficient Sliver Cell

Sliver technology, first developed at the ANU, offers large reductions in silicon consumption and wafer throughput per MW. However, sliver technology requires more processing steps than conventional silicon solar cell fabrication, and thus fabrication represents a larger cost per wafer. This additional cost is easily justified because sliver cells are highly efficient and also the module area producible per wafer is far greater than for conventional technologies. Current research at the ANU is aimed at delivering a simplified processing sequence capable of producing sliver cells with a reduced manufacturing cost and with better performance than the originally developed fabrication process. With the simplified process it should be possible to reliably manufacture > 20% efficient cells with a high yield