Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the laser processing of the CIGS thin-film solar cells in the case of the high-speed regime. The modern ultra-short pulsed laser was used exhibiting the pulse repetition rate of 1 MHz. Two main P3 scribing approaches were investigated – ablation of the full layer stack to expose the molybdenum back-contact, and removal of the front-contact only. The scribe quality was evaluated by SEM together with EDS spectrometer followed by electrical measurements. We also modelled the electrical behavior of a device at the mini-module scale taking into account the laser-induced damage. We demonstrated, that high-speed process at high laser pulse repetition rate induced thermal damage to the cell. However, the top-contact layer lift-off processing enabled us to reach 1.7 m/s scribing speed with a minimal device degradation. Also, we demonstrated the P3 processing in the ultra-high speed regime, where the scribing speed of 50 m/s was obtained. Finally, selected laser processes were tested in the case of mini-module scribing. Overall, we conclude, that the top-contact layer lift-off processing is the only reliable solution for high-speed P3 laser scribing, which can be implemented in the future terawatt-scale photovoltaic production facilities.
Highlights
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The scribing speed could be linearly increased with the increase of the laser repetition rate keeping the optimal pulse overlap
We demonstrated that it is possible to upscale the P3 “type 1” patterning speed, the thermal effects were more pronounced for high repetition rates
Summary
Publisher's note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliati. Low power and pulse repetition rate lasers were used for scribing, resulting relatively low process speeds. Modern ultra-short pulsed lasers are powerful enough and can provide high pulse repetition rates.
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