ABSTRACT
N-type substrates possess better material characteristics than p-type substrates for high efficiency mass producible Si solar cells with HIT, IBC structures. The major drawbacks of these structures are a complicated fabrication process and an expensive unit cost. In this paper, the boron emitter doping profile of a nanosized boron rich layer (BRL), for which the boron and oxygen concentrations are correlated, is optimized to fabricate high efficiency solar cells on an n-type substrate. Boron doping was carried out using a BBr3 furnace with varying oxygen gas ratios and the surface was treated with acid etching. The effect of the oxygen on the nanosized BRL was analyzed using both FTIR spectroscopy and XPS, where by conductivity and the Si-B bond were observed for the three-fold and four-fold coordinated borons, respectively. The results showed that the oxygen quantities in the boron doped emitter and the nanosized BRL affected the characteristics of the solar cell. Regarding the solar cells that were fabricated using the boron emitter and shallow emitter (90 ohm/sq) processes, the open-circuit voltage increased by 54 mV and the short circuit current (J(sc)) increased by 3.7 mA/cm2. The J(sc) increase was due to an increased quantum efficiency in the short wavelength range. The shallow emitter etch back process minimized the boron-oxygen defects in the doping profile.
ABSTRACT
Recently, the importance of solar cell research has emerged due to emerging social issues such as environmental pollution problems and rising oil prices. Accordingly, each company is studying to make solar cell of high efficiency. In order to fabricate high-efficiency solar cells, the two major techniques have to be applied on the rear. One is complete passivation of the surface using a thermal oxide and the other one is the part that comes in contact with the electrode doped partially LBSF (Local BSF) formation. In this paper, LBC technology which is usually applied for high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cell, applied to mass productive solar cell to achieve high open circuit voltage and short circuit current with low surface recombination from rear side. Thermal SiO2/SiN(x) double layer which has superior thermal stability is formed on rear surface as passivation layer, then 1% of the whole rear surface area is locally contacted with aluminum. Finally, the cell has been fired at high temperature and the cell process has complete. The fabricated LBC cells conversion efficiency was 18.0% with 625 mV of open-circuit voltage (V(oc)), 37.58 mA/cm2 of current density (J(sc)), 76.3% of fillfactor (FF) at 5% contact coverage, respectively.
ABSTRACT
The low level doping of a selective emitter by etch back is an easy and low cost process to obtain a better blue response from a solar cell. This work suggests that the contact resistance of the selective emitter can be controlled by wet etching with the commercial acid barrier paste that is commonly applied in screen printing. Wet etching conditions such as acid barrier curing time, etchant concentration, and etching time have been optimized for the process, which is controllable as well as fast. The acid barrier formed by screen printing was etched with HF and HNO3 (1:200) solution for 15 s, resulting in high sheet contact resistance of 90 Ω/sq. Doping concentrations of the electrode contact portion were 2 × 1021 cm-3 in the low sheet resistance (Rs) region and 7 × 1019 cm-3 in the high Rs region. Solar cells of 12.5 × 12.5 cm2 in dimensions with a wet etch back selective emitter Jsc of 37 mAcm-2, open circuit voltage (Voc) of 638.3 mV and efficiency of 18.13% were fabricated. The result showed an improvement of about 13 mV on Voc compared to those of the reference solar cell fabricated with the reactive-ion etching back selective emitter and with Jsc of 36.90 mAcm-2, Voc of 625.7 mV, and efficiency of 17.60%.
