Impact of Texture Roughness on the Front-Side Metallization of Stencil-Printed Silicon Solar Cells

Realizing narrow contact fingers with low lateral resistance is a major goal for the front-side metallization of silicon solar cells. The formation of screen- or stencil-printed contact fingers is governed by a variety of influencing factors. One of these factors is the surface roughness of the textured silicon wafer. However, only a few investigations have been carried out to investigate this impact in detail. In this study, the influence of arithmetical mean roughness R_a of four differently textured wafer surfaces on contact finger geometry and lateral finger resistance, as well as optical and electrical losses, has been investigated. It will be shown that texture roughness has a considerable impact on the properties of the front-side grid. Narrower contact fingers could be realized on the smoothest texture, leading to a current density gain of Δj_sc = +0.27 mA/cm². On the other hand, increasing texture roughness has affected the amount of transferred paste and, thus, has led to a lower lateral finger resistance RL. Thus, contact fingers on the roughest texture have benefited from a fill factor gain of ΔFF = +0.24 %_abs. A sensitivity analysis of both impacts has shown that the current density gain has overcompensated the fill factor loss. Thus, textures with a small roughness are beneficial with respect to the formation and electrical properties of stencil-printed front-side grids.