< 700 mV Open-Circuit Voltages on Defect-Engineered P-type Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells on Czochralski and Multicrystalline Wafers

Abstract

Silicon heterojunction solar cells are primarily fabricated with high-quality wafers, resulting in a higher manufacturing cost than mainstream solar cells. We explore the impact of defect engineering methods of hydrogenation and gettering into silicon heterojunction solar cells fabricated using low-lifetime, commercial-grade, p-type, Czochralski-grown monocrystalline and high-performance multicrystalline wafers. We demonstrate solar cells with independently verified opencircuit voltages of 707 mV and 702 mV on monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon wafers, respectively, thus exceeding 700 mV on multicrystalline silicon materials for the first time in the world. These remarkably high open-circuit voltages reveal the potential of cost-competitive low-quality p-type silicon wafers for making high-efficiency solar cells with efficiencies without the need of shifting towards expensive, high-quality wafers.