Modeling and characterization of high-efficiency silicon solar cells fabricated by rapid thermal processing, screen printing, and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Author

Doshi, Parag ; Mejia, Jose ; Tate, Keith ; Rohatgi, Ajeet

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

44

Issue

9

fYear

1997

fDate

9/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1417

Lastpage

1424

Abstract

This paper presents, for the first time, the successful integration of three rapid, low-cost, high-throughput technologies for silicon solar cell fabrication, namely: rapid thermal processing (RTP) for simultaneous diffusion of a phosphorus emitter and aluminum back surface field; screen printing (SP) for the front grid contact; and low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of SiN for antireflection coating and surface passivation. This combination has resulted in 4 cm² cells with efficiencies of 16.3% and 15.9% on 2 Ω-cm FZ and Cz, respectively, as well as 15.4% efficient, 25-cm² FZ cells. Despite the respectable RTP/SP/PECVD efficiencies, cells formed by conventional furnace processing and photolithography (CFP/PL) give ~2% (absolute) greater efficiencies. Through in-depth modeling and characterization, this efficiency difference is quantified on the basis of emitter design and front surface passivation, grid shading, and quality of contacts. Detailed analysis reveals that the difference is primarily due to the requirements of screen printing and not RTP

Keywords

antireflection coatings; elemental semiconductors; passivation; plasma CVD; printing; rapid thermal processing; semiconductor process modelling; silicon; solar cells; 15.4 percent; 15.9 percent; 16.3 percent; Si; antireflection coating; back surface field; efficiency difference; emitter design; front grid contact; front surface passivation; furnace processing; grid shading; in-depth modeling; plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition; rapid thermal processing; screen printing; solar cells; Aluminum; Chemical technology; Fabrication; Passivation; Photovoltaic cells; Plasma chemistry; Plasma displays; Printing; Rapid thermal processing; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.622596

Filename

622596