Poly-Si(O)x passivating contacts for high-efficiency c-Si IBC solar cells

Guangtao Yang*, Yue Zhang, Paul Procel, Arthur Weeber, Olindo Isabella, Miro Zeman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleScientificpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
102 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Highest conversion efficiency in crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells can be enabled by quenching minority carriers' recombination at c-Si/contact interface owing to carrier-selective passivating contacts. With the semi-insulating poly-crystalline silicon (SIPOS, poly-Si) a very good passivation of c-Si surfaces was obtained. We have explored these passivating structures on IBC solar cells and obtained over 22% efficiency with over 23% within reach on the short term. We present in detail the passivation quality of p-type and n-type ion-implanted LPCVD poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si) and its relation to the doping profile. Optimized poly-Si layers in the role of emitter and BSF showed excellent passivation (J0,emitter = 11.5 fA/cm2 and J0,BSF = 4.5 fA/cm2) and have been deployed in FSF-based IBC c-Si solar cells using a simple self-aligned patterning process. Applying an optimized passivation of FSF by PECVD a-Si:H/SiNx layer (J0,FSF = 6.5 fA/cm2) leads to a cell with efficiency of 22.1% (VOC = 709 mV, JSC = 40.7 mA/cm2, FF = 76.6%). Since over 83% FF has been reached with adjusted metallization technology on similar IBC structures, we believe 23% efficiency is within reach on the short term. Further improvement, especially at JSC level, is expected by deploying less absorbing carrier-selective passivating contacts based on poly-Si or wide bandgap poly-SiOx layers (J0 ~ 10 fA/cm2).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)392-399
Number of pages8
JournalEnergy Procedia
Volume124
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
EventSiliconPV 2017: 7th International Conference on Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaics - Freiburg, Germany
Duration: 3 Apr 20175 Apr 2017
http://2017.siliconpv.com/home.html

Keywords

  • IBC c-Si solar cell
  • passivating contact
  • poly-crystalline silicon oxide alloys

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