Abstract
In this article, the impact of postplating annealing on the regenerated state of boron-doped p-type passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cells with plated Ni/Cu/Ag front-side contacts is characterized. The assessment of different plating annealing profiles in the temperature range of 200–300 °C and their impact on light-induced degradation as well as on additional defects are realized by lifetime measurements of nonmetallized solar cell precursors before and after annealing. An observed lifetime degradation indicates that the current process sequence might facilitate bulk defect activation. An alternative process sequence is tested and promising results are presented.
Highlights
P ASSIVATED emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cells with their potential to achieve efficiencies exceeding 24% [1] feature a rising trend in world market share over the last years evolving to be the dominant solar cell concept [2]
A key aspect in the limitation of passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cells is that light-induced degradation (LID) due to boron oxygen (BO) defects can cause severe losses in the efficiency of the solar cells up to 4–6%relative under standard test conditions(see [5]
We investigate the impact of postplating annealing processes on regenerated PERC solar cells
Summary
P ASSIVATED emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cells with their potential to achieve efficiencies exceeding 24% [1] feature a rising trend in world market share over the last years evolving to be the dominant solar cell concept [2]. That state is susceptible to destabilization during thermal treatments, as demonstrated in [7] They showed the destabilization of the regenerated state of the metastable defect in boron-doped Cz-Si solar cells at temperatures T > 170 °C in the dark. The plating sequence for front-side metallization developed at Fraunhofer ISE is displayed, moving the regeneration process (red) to the end position (green) of the sequence It involves thermal postplating annealing in order to enhance contact resistance and contact adhesion [11]. Application of this process sequence could be detrimental to the stabilized state of BO defects and could activate LeTID. GRÜBEL et al.: IMPACT OF POSTPLATING ANNEALING ON DEFECT ACTIVATION IN BORON-DOPED PERC SOLAR CELLS. We will suggest alternatives to the standard plating sequence in order to combine it with the regeneration step [see Fig. 1 (green)]
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