NOVEL METHODS AND ADVANCED MATERIALS FOR PASSIVATED CONTACT SOLAR CELLS

Abstract

Recombination-active metal/semiconductor interfaces remain a key limitation to achieving higher efficiencies for standard PERC solar cells. High quality hydrogenated amorphous intrinsic (a-Si:H(i), a-SiOx:H(i)) and doped (a-Si:H(n), a-Si:H(p)) silicon thin layers were developed using novel inductively coupled plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition techniques and integrated into silicon heterojunction and poly-Si based solar cells. The a-Si:H layers were annealed to form poly-Si(p) and poly-Si(n) layers. High quality a-Si:H(n) layers were selected for integration into full poly-Si based passivated solar cells. The best poly-Si passivated contact solar cell achieved photoconversion efficiencies of 21.3 %. Cu nanoparticle screen printing pastes were developed as a potential alternative to expensive Ag for metallisation of passivated contact solar cells. The average specific contact resistivity of the Cu-ITO contact for the best- performing paste formulation under optimal curing conditions was 0.4 mW.cm2.