Use of Coated-Metal Particles in Rear Busbar Pastes to Reduce Silver Consumption

Reducing the amount of silver is one of the most important ways to reduce the cost of photovoltaic cells. The common way to reduce silver consumption on a cell is the reduction of the metal content in the paste. We present a new paste with silver-coated nickel particles, reducing the silver amount and still keeping the properties of silver related to oxidation and sintering. This paper shows the limits in conductivity due to porosity and oxidation of coated-metal particle pastes in comparison with silver pastes. Simulations and cell tests show that coated-metal particle pastes reduce silver consumption without decreasing the cell efficiency replacing busbar pastes. Coated-metal particle pastes are able to decrease silver consumption for rear-side busbars to c_Ag <; 1.4 mg/cm², leading to a conductivity σ_BB = 1.110⁵ S/cm, without decreasing cell or module efficiency. The conductivity of coated-metal particle pastes is too low using pastes with coated-metal particles as a replacement for the metallization paste for grid fingers but good enough to replace the silver paste for busbars with a cheap alternative.