Sensitivity of surface passivation and interface quality in IBC-SHJ solar cells to patterning process

Author

Das, Udhab ; Jianbo He ; Zhan Shu ; Lulu Zhang ; Thompson, Charlotte ; Birkmire, Robert ; Hegedus, Steven

Author_Institution

Inst. of Energy Conversion, Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

16-21 June 2013

Firstpage

1224

Lastpage

1227

Abstract

The effect of the back surface patterning process on solar cell performance is evaluated for an interdigitated back contact silicon heterojunction (IBC-SHJ) structure. Three different patterning processes, two step photolithography, two step photolithography with laser fired base contact, and one step photolithography are investigated, allowing independent evaluation of the interfaces between the intrinsic amorphous silicon (i.a-Si:H) layer that passivates the c-Si and p- and n-a-Si:H layers. The fill factor of the IBC-SHJ solar cell critically depends on the quality of i/p a-Si:H interface, while the open circuit voltage is governed by the surface passivation quality of the entire back surface.

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; laser materials processing; passivation; photolithography; silicon compounds; solar cells; IBC-SHJ solar cells; back surface patterning process; interdigitated back contact silicon heterojunction structure; intrinsic amorphous silicon layer; laser fired base contact; open circuit voltage; photolithography; surface interface quality sensitivity; surface passivation quality sensitivity; Dry etching; Lithography; Passivation; Photovoltaic cells; Silicon; Strips; interdigitated back contact; interfaces; patterning process; silicon heterojunction solar cell; surface passivation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2013 IEEE 39th

Conference_Location

Tampa, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2013.6744360

Filename

6744360