Reliability of a printed Cu busbar electrode on a conventional silicon solar cell

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the reliability of the Cu busbar electrode fabricated by screen printing of resin-based Cu pastes on a crystal silicon solar cell with conventional front and rear electrodes excluding the busbar. The damp heat test (DHT) and thermal cycling test (TCT) of the cells were carried out with ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) and glass encapsulation, and without any encapsulation. No significant degradation was observed for either case. Oxidation was confined to the surface region even without encapsulation after 2,500 h of DHT. Cu diffusion into Si was evaluated using pseudo fill factor (pFF). No significant changes in pFF were found after heat treatment (400 °C, 1 h) in the case of resin-based Cu, where 10% pFF loss was observed when Cu was introduced by vapor deposition. From these findings, the role of resin used as a binder in Cu pastes is considered a key material parameter of Cu diffusion in Si.