Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.11.014
Title: Impact of the manufacturing process on the reverse-bias characteristics of high-efficiency n-type bifacial silicon wafer solar cells
Authors: Shanmugam, Vinodh 
Chen, Ning 
Yan, Xia 
Khanna, Ankit 
Nagarajan, Balaji 
Rodriguez, John 
Nandakumar, Naomi 
Knauss, Holger
Haverkamp, Helge
Aberle, Armin 
Duttagupta, Shubham 
Keywords: Science & Technology
Technology
Physical Sciences
Energy & Fuels
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Materials Science
Physics
nFAB solar cell
Reverse bias
I-V characteristics
Bifacial
High efficiency
Silicon wafer solar cell
N-type silicon
BREAKDOWN
DEFECTS
Issue Date: 1-Mar-2019
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Citation: Shanmugam, Vinodh, Chen, Ning, Yan, Xia, Khanna, Ankit, Nagarajan, Balaji, Rodriguez, John, Nandakumar, Naomi, Knauss, Holger, Haverkamp, Helge, Aberle, Armin, Duttagupta, Shubham (2019-03-01). Impact of the manufacturing process on the reverse-bias characteristics of high-efficiency n-type bifacial silicon wafer solar cells. SOLAR ENERGY MATERIALS AND SOLAR CELLS 191 : 117-122. ScholarBank@NUS Repository. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.11.014
Abstract: © 2018 Elsevier B.V. In this paper, bifacial n-type silicon wafer solar cells with a front boron-diffused emitter and a rear phosphorus-diffused back surface field are investigated. The cell structure is abbreviated as nFAB (n-type Front and Back Contact). Three different process flows are evaluated for the fabrication of nFAB cells: (1) process flow with a silicon nitride diffusion mask deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD), (2) process flow with a silicon oxynitride diffusion mask also deposited by PECVD, and (3) process flow using single-sided atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition (APCVD), without diffusion masks. An average batch efficiency of 21.3% was measured (front side illumination only) for all three nFAB process flows. However, the reverse bias I-V characteristics are observed to be remarkably different and dependent on the process flow, especially with regards to the masking processes. For process flow 1 that uses a silicon nitride PECVD mask, the reverse bias I-V characteristics are poor with a severe breakdown occurring at − 5 V and a reverse current of 18 A at −10 V. Process flow 2 with a silicon oxynitride PECVD mask leads to significantly improved reverse characteristics with a reverse current of 1 A at −10 V. For the APCVD process flow without diffusion masks, excellent reverse bias characteristics are observed with a reverse current of only 3 mA at −10 V. Reverse-biased electroluminescence imaging is used to determine the breakdown regions of the cells for the different process flows and to analyse the impact of the diffusion masking step on the cells’ breakdown characteristics.
Source Title: SOLAR ENERGY MATERIALS AND SOLAR CELLS
URI: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/155033
ISSN: 0927-0248
1879-3398
DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2018.11.014
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