Boron implanted emitter for n-type silicon solar cell**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61275040, 60976046, and 61021003) and the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2012CB934200).

Abstract

The effects of ion doses on the properties of boron implanted Si for n-type solar cell application were investigated with doses ranging from 5× 1014 cm− 2 to 2× 1015 cm− 2 and a subsequent two-step annealing process in a tube furnace. With the help of the TCAD process simulation tool, knowledge on diffusion kinetics of dopants and damage evolution was obtained by fitting SIMS measured boron profiles. Due to insufficient elimination of the residual damage, the implanted emitter was found to have a higher saturation current density (J0e) and a poorer crystallographic quality. Consistent with this observation, Voc, Jsc, and the efficiency of the all-implanted p+–n–n+ solar cells followed a decreasing trend with an increase of the implantation dose. The obtained maximum efficiency was 19.59% at a low dose of 5× 1014 cm− 2. The main efficiency loss under high doses came not only from increased recombination of carriers in the space charge region revealed by double-diode parameters of dark I–V curves, but also from the degraded minority carrier diffusion length in the emitter and base evidenced by IQE data. These experimental results indicated that clusters and dislocation loops had appeared at high implantation doses, which acted as effective recombination centers for photogenerated carriers.