25.7% efficient PERC solar cell using double side silicide on oxide electrostatically doped (SILO-ED) carrier selective contacts: process and device simulation study

Abstract

Passivating contacts have recently considered as a superior carrier-selective contact approach for high-efficiency silicon-based photovoltaic devices. However, the conversion efficiencies of the silicon-based passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) are limited by contact recombination losses that reduce their performance. Therefore, we investigated a new manufacturable silicide on oxide-based electrostatically doped (SILO-ED) carrier-selective contact to suppress the contact recombination losses and reduce the saturation current density (j 0). For the first time, double side electrostatic doping is introduced to the PERC devices to form the carrier selective passivating contacts. First, a conventional PERC device was designed and the effects of surface recombination velocity (SRV) at both contacts were studied. After that, single and double SILO-ED based contacts are introduced into the device and a systematic analysis is performed to understand the tunneling phenomena and improve the conversion efficiency compared to existing PERC cells. The front SILO-ED based device with back contact SRV of 10 cm s−1 showed a power conversion efficiency of 25.4% with j 0 (14.3 fA·cm−2). In contrast, the double SILO-ED device delivered 25.7% conversion efficiency by further suppressing the j 0 to 11.8 fA·cm−2 by implementing SILO-ED approach with two different metal silicides such as erbium silicide (ErSi2) and palladium silicide (Pd2Si) on front and rear contact surface. The champion double SILO-ED PERC solar cell delivered a conversion efficiency of 25.7% with an open circuit voltage (V OC) of 742 mV. The results reported in this study would help to develop superior passivating contact-based PERC solar cells for higher efficiencies.