Laser doping for high-efficiency silicon solar cells

Abstract

Selective laser doping is a versatile tool for the local adaption of doping profiles in a silicon substrate. By adjusting the laser fluence as well as the pulse width the maximum melt depth in the silicon can be controlled. Longer pulses lead to lower temperatures in the material and can help to enlarge the process window as ablation sets in at higher fluencies. For the fabrication of highly efficient silicon solar cells, laser doping can be used for efficiency improvement and process simplification. In passivated emitter and rear cells (PERC), selective laser doping can be used for selective emitter formation. Employing such a process, an efficiency boost of &Delta; <i>ƞ</i>= 0.4%_abs was observed on commercial Cz-Si material. Laser doping was also used for process simplification for the fabrication of locally doped point contacts at the rear of a solar cell. A simple approach employing a doped passivation layer and a laser doping process allows for efficiencies beyond 22% on high quality n-type silicon.