Front and rear silicon‐nitride‐passivated multicrystalline silicon solar cells with an efficiency of 18.1%

Abstract

AbstractA solar cell process designed to utilise low‐temperature plasma‐enhanced chemical vapour deposited (PECVD) silicon nitride (SiNx) films as front and rear surface passivation was applied to fabricate multicrystalline silicon (mc‐Si) solar cells. Despite the simple photolithography‐free processing sequence, an independently confirmed efficiency of 18.1% (cell area 2 × 2 cm2) was achieved. This excellent efficiency can be predominantly attributed to the superior quality of the rear surface passivation scheme consisting of an SiNx film in combination with a local aluminium back‐surface field (LBSF). Thus, it is demonstrated that low‐temperature PECVD SiNx films are well suited to achieve excellent rear surface passivation on mc‐Si. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.