19.4%‐efficient large‐area fully screen‐printed silicon solar cells

We demonstrate industrially feasible large‐area solar cells with passivated homogeneous emitter and rear achieving energy conversion efficiencies of up to 19.4% on 125 × 125 mm² p‐type 2–3 Ω cm boron‐doped Czochralski silicon wafers. Front and rear metal contacts are fabricated by screen‐printing of silver and aluminum paste and firing in a conventional belt furnace. We implement two different dielectric rear surface passivation stacks: (i) a thermally grown silicon dioxide/silicon nitride stack and (ii) an atomic‐layer‐deposited aluminum oxide/silicon nitride stack. The dielectrics at the rear result in a decreased surface recombination velocity of S_rear = 70 cm/s and 80 cm/s, and an increased internal IR reflectance of up to 91% corresponding to an improved J_sc of up to 38.9 mA/cm² and V_oc of up to 664 mV. We observe an increase in cell efficiency of 0.8% absolute for the cells compared to 18.6% efficient reference solar cells featuring a full‐area aluminum back surface field. To our knowledge, the energy conversion efficiency of 19.4% is the best value reported so far for large area screen‐printed solar cells. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Plasmon enhancement of optical absorption in ultra-thin film solar cells by rear located aluminum nanodisk arrays

In this work, in order to enhance the light absorption in one micron thick crystalline silicon solar cells, a back reflecting and rear located plasmonic nanodisk scheme is proposed. We investigate the scattering properties of aluminum nanostructures located at the back side and optimize them for enhancing absorption in the silicon layer by using finite difference time domain simulations. The results indicate that the period and diameters of nanodisks, thickness of spacer layer have a strong impact on short circuit current enhancements. The optimized Al nanoparticle arrays embedded in rear located SiO₂ layer enhance J _sc with an increase of 47% from the non-plasmonic case of 18.9 to 27.8 mA/cm² when comparing with a typical stack with a planar aluminum back reflector and a back reflector with plasmonic nanoparticles. This finding could lead to improved light trapping within a thin silicon solar cell device.     

Effective surface passivation of crystalline silicon by rf sputtered aluminum oxide

In recent years, excellent surface passivation has been achieved on both p‐type and n‐type surfaces of silicon wafers and solar cells using aluminum oxide deposited by plasma‐assisted atomic layer deposition. However, alternative deposition methods may offer practical advantages for large‐scale manufacturing of solar cells. In this letter we show that radio‐frequency magnetron sputtering is capable of depositing negatively‐charged aluminum oxide and achieving good surface passivation both on p‐type and n‐type silicon wafers. We thus establish that sputtered aluminum oxide is a very promising method for the surface passivation of high efficiency solar cells. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Study of detached back reflector designs for thin‐film silicon solar cells

We present a precise and flexible method to investigate the impact of diverse detached reflector designs on the optical response of p–i–n thin‐film silicon solar cells. In this study, the term detached reflectors refers to back reflectors that are separated from the silicon layers by an intermediate rear dielectric of several micrometers. Based on the utilization of a highly conductive n‐doped layer and a local electrical contact scheme, the method allows the use of non‐conductive rear dielectrics such as air or transparent liquids. With this approach, diverse combinations of back reflector and rear dielectric can be placed behind the same solar cell, providing a direct evaluation of their impact on the device performance. We demonstrate the positive effect of a rear dielectric of low refractive index on the light trapping and compare the performance of solar cells with an air/Ag and a standard ZnO/Ag back reflector design. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

界面缺陷态密度与衬底电阻率取值对硅异质结光伏电池性能的影响

在异质结前界面缺陷态密度Dit1和异质结背界面缺陷态密度Dit2均取不同值时,对p型单晶硅(c-Si(p))为衬底的硅异质结太阳电池的衬底电阻率ρ与电池性能的关系进行了数值研究.结果表明:衬底电阻率的最优值ρop取决于前界面缺陷态密度Dit1,且ρop随着Dit1的增大而增大;当ρρop时,背界面缺陷态密度Dit2对衬底电阻率的可取值范围具有较大影响,Dit2越大衬底电阻率的可取值范围越小.     

Optimization of microcrystalline silicon thin film solar cell isolation processing parameters using ultraviolet laser

This study used ultraviolet laser to perform the microcrystalline silicon thin film solar cell isolation scribing process, and applied the Taguchi method and an L₁₈ orthogonal array to plan the experiment. The isolation scribing materials included ZnO:Al, AZO transparent conductive film with a thickness of 200 nm, microcrystalline silicon thin film at 38% crystallinity and of thickness of 500 nm, and the aluminum back contact layer with a thickness of 300 nm. The main objective was to ensure the success of isolation scribing. After laser scribing isolation, using the minimum scribing line width, the flattest trough bottom, and the minimum processing edge surface bumps as the quality characteristics, this study performed main effect analysis and applied the ANOVA (analysis of variance) theory of the Taguchi method to identify the single quality optimal parameter. It then employed the hierarchical structure of the AHP (analytic hierarchy process) theory to establish the positive contrast matrix. After consistency verification, global weight calculation, and priority sequencing, the optimal multi-attribute parameters were obtained. Finally, the experimental results were verified by a Taguchi confirmation experiment and confidence interval calculation. The minimum scribing line width of AZO (200 nm) was 45.6 μm, the minimum scribing line width of the microcrystalline silicon (at 38% crystallinity) was 50.63 μm and the minimum line width of the aluminum thin film (300 nm) was 30.96 μm. The confirmation experiment results were within the 95% confidence interval, verifying that using ultraviolet laser in the isolation scribing process for microcrystalline silicon thin film solar cell has high reproducibility.     

Influence of laser power on POCl3 diffused back surface field on n-type PERT silicon solar cells with local back contact

We report n-type passivated emitter rear totally diffused (PERT) silicon solar cells with local back contacts (LBC) formed by laser process. With passivated back surface field (BSF), the PERT cell design shows an improved open circuit voltage (V_oc) with reduced recombination at the rear due to improved optical confinement. The rear side was diffused by POCl₃ diffusion with low sheet resistance (R_s) BSF and passivated using SiN_x. Laser ablation was used to open the SiN_x on the rear for LBC. The Nd:YAG laser power (mW) parameters and POCl₃ doping temperature were varied to obtain the BSF with lower sheet resistance. Laser power of 44 mW with 10 kHz resulted in 30 Ω/sq BSF layer with effective lifetime (τ_eff) of 90 μs and a higher V_oc of 646 mV. With the optimized laser parameters the best electrical results yielded a short circuit current density (J_sc) of 36 mA/cm² and efficiency of 18.54%.     

Wet-chemical treatment and electronic interface properties of silicon solar cell substrates

On textured n-type silicon substrates for solar cell manufacturing, the relation between light trapping behavior, structural imperfections, energetic distribution of interface state densities and interface recombination losses were investigated by applying surface sensitive techniques. The field-modulated surface photovoltage (SPV), in-situ photoluminescence (PL) measurements, total hemispherical UV-NIR-reflectance measurements and electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to yield detailed information on the influence of wet-chemical treatments on preparation induced micro-roughness and electronic properties of polished and textured silicon substrates. It was shown that isotropic as well as anisotropic etching of light trapping structures result in high surface micro-roughness and density of interface states. Removing damaged surface layers in the nm range by wet-chemical treatments, the density of these states and the related interface recombination loss can be reduced. In-situ PL measurements were applied to optimise HF-treatment times aimed at undamaged, oxide-free and hydrogen-terminated substrate surfaces as starting material for subsequent solar cell preparations.      

Study of hydrogenated AlN as an anti‐reflective coating and for the effective surface passivation of silicon

Stacks of aluminum oxide and silicon nitride are frequently used in silicon photovoltaics. In this Letter, we demonstrate that hydrogenated aluminum nitride can be an alternative to this dual‐layer stack. Deposited on 1 Ω cm p‐type FZ silicon, very low effective surface recombination velocities of 8 cm/s could be reached after firing at 820 °C. This excellent passivation is traced back to a high density of fixed charges at the interface of approximately –1 × 10¹² cm^–2 and a very low interface defect density below 5 × 10¹⁰ eV^–1 cm^–2. Furthermore, spectral ellipsometry measurements reveal that these aluminum nitride layers have ideal optical properties for use as anti‐reflective coatings. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

基于阳极氧化铝纳米光栅的薄膜硅太阳能电池双重陷光结构设计与仿真

本文提出了表面和底部均带有阳极氧化铝(AAO)纳米光栅的薄膜硅太阳能电池双重陷光结构,利用FDTD软件仿真研究了AAO纳米光栅的周期、厚度和占空比对薄膜硅太阳能电池短路电流密度的影响,并对AAO结构参数进行了优化.仿真结果表明,表面AAO最佳结构参数是周期440 nm,厚度75 nm,占空比0.5,底部AAO最佳结构参数是周期380 nm,厚度90 nm,占空比为0.75.双重AAO组合陷光结构可有效增加薄膜硅太阳能电池在280—1100 nm范围内的光吸收,吸收相对增强可以达到74.44%.     

High efficiency screen-printed n-type silicon solar cell using co-diffusion of APCVD boron emitter and POCl3 back surface field

We present the fabrication and analysis of Passivated Emitter and Rear Totally Diffused (PERT) solar cells on n-type silicon using a co-diffusion process. In a single high temperature step, a BSG/SiO_x stack deposited by APCVD and a POCl₃ back surface field diffuse into the wafer to form the boron doped emitter and phosphorus doped back surface field. The SiO_x layer on top of BSG acts as a masking layer to prevent cross-doping of phosphorus as well as a blocking layer for boron out-diffusion. This resulted in an initial sheet resistance of 76 Ω/□ with good uniformity and a final p⁺ emitter sheet resistance of 97 Ω/□ after boron rich layer removal. Additionally, bulk lifetime was investigated before and after the high temperature step that resulted in an increase from 1.2 ms to 1.5 ms due to a POCl₃ gettering effect. A peak cell efficiency of 20.3% was achieved and each recombination component in terms of saturation current density was calculated and analyzed to understand the cell for further efficiency enhancement.     

Studies on the polycrystalline silicon/SiO_2 stack as front surface field for IBC solar cells by two-dimensional simulations

Interdigitated back contact(IBC) solar cells can achieve a very high efficiency due to its less optical losses. But IBC solar cells demand for high quality passivation of the front surface. In this paper, a polycrystalline silicon/SiO_2 stack structure as front surface field to passivate the front surface of IBC solar cells is proposed. The passivation quality of this structure is investigated by two dimensional simulations. Polycrystalline silicon layer and SiO_2 layer are optimized to get the best passivation quality of the IBC solar cell. Simulation results indicate that the doping level of polycrystalline silicon should be high enough to allow a very thin polycrystalline silicon layer to ensure an effective passivation and small optical losses at the same time. The thickness of SiO_2 should be neither too thin nor too thick, and the optimal thickness is 1.2 nm.Furthermore, the lateral transport properties of electrons are investigated, and the simulation results indicate that a high doping level and conductivity of polycrystalline silicon can improve the lateral transportation of electrons and then the cell performance.     

Ni reactions with surfaces: dependence of gettering efficiencies for Ni on crystal-growth conditions, back-side-gettering techniques, oxygen precipitates and thermal treatments

We have performed measurements on the gettering efficiencies for Ni in different silicon wafers. Gettering efficiencies were measured of wafers grown by different crystal-growth techniques, such as Czochralski-grown (CZ) and floating zone (FZ), as well as wafers containing crystal-originated particles (COPs) of different size and density. Lightly boron doped CZ wafers covered with an epitaxial layer were also evaluated. In another set of experiments, we compared different back-side-gettering techniques, like poly-silicon, stacking faults and He-implanted back sides and the dependence of back-side gettering on cooling rate and contamination level. Internal surfaces of oxygen precipitates were also investigated. The gettering test started with a reproducible spin-on contamination in the range around 10¹² atoms/cm² and was followed by a thermal treatment to redistribute the Ni impurity in the wafer. Subsequently, wafers were analyzed for their surface and bulk contamination by a novel layer-by-layer etching, stratigraphical technique in combination with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. No detectable gettering effect of COPs was found. FZ wafers differed remarkably in their gettering behavior from CZ wafers, obviously due to differences in aggregated self-point defects. Most remarkably, the deposition process of an epitaxial layer changed the gettering behavior of p/p- wafers. Comparing the gettering efficiencies of different back sides, an extraordinarily high gettering efficiency of He-implanted voids can be anticipated, which was higher than the gettering efficiency of poly-silicon and stacking faults. High cooling rates at the end of the drive-in cycle and low contamination levels lowered the gettering efficiencies of back-side-gettering techniques, suggesting a diffusion-limited gettering process. Based on the dependence of the gettering efficiencies on different drive-in cycles, a surface reaction as a mechanistic initiation of the drive-in must be assumed. Oxygen precipitates exhibited a high gettering effect for Ni contamination. All experimental results are interpreted by available active surfaces in the gettering phases. Received: 30 May 2001 / Accepted: 16 June 2001 / Published online: 30 August 2001     

Electrical and optical characterization of SiOxNy and SiO2 dielectric layers and rear surface passivation by using SiO2/SiOxNy stack layers with screen printed local Al-BSF for c-Si solar cells

In c-Si solar cells, surface recombination velocity increases as the wafer thickness decreases due to an increase in surface to volume ratio. For high efficiency, in addition to low surface recombination velocity at the rear side, a high internal reflection from the rear surface is also required. The SiO_xN_y film with low absorbance can act as rear surface reflector. In this study, industrially feasible SiO₂/SiO_xN_y stack for rear surface passivation and screen printed local aluminium back surface field were used in the cell structure. A 3 nm thick oxide layer has resulted in low fixed oxide charge density of 1.58 × 10¹¹ cm⁻² without parasitic shunting. The oxide layer capped with SiO_xN_y layer led to surface recombination velocity of 155 cm/s after firing. Using single layer (SiO₂) rear passivation, an efficiency of 18.13% has been obtained with V_oc of 625 mV, J_sc of 36.4 mA/cm² and fill factor of 78.7%. By using double layer (SiO₂/SiO_xN_y stack) passivation at the rear side, an efficiency of 18.59% has been achieved with V_oc of 632 mV, J_sc of 37.6 mA/cm², and fill factor of 78.3%. An improved cell performance was obtained with SiO₂/SiO_xN_y rear stack passivation and local BSF.     

The 18.3% Silicon Solar Cells with Nano-Structured Surface and Rear Emitter

A nano-structured surface is formed on the pyramid structure of n-type silicon solar cells by size-controlled silver nano-particle assisted etching. Such a nano-structure creates a front average weighted reflectance of less than 2.5%in the 300-1200 nm range due to the broadband reflection suppression. The sodium hydroxide is used to obtain the low-area surface by post-etching the nano-structure, thus the severe carrier recombination associated with the nano-structured surface could be reduced. After emitter forming, screen printing and firing by means of the industrial fabrication protocol, an 18.3%-efficient nano-structured silicon solar cell with rear emitter is fabricated.The process of fabricating the solar cells matches well with industrial manufacture and shows promising prospects.     

Characteristics of silicon solar cell emitter with a reduced diffused phosphorus inactive layer

The diffusion of phosphorus using a phosphorous oxychloride (POCl₃) source in silicon has been used widely in crystalline silicon solar cells. The thermal diffusion process in the furnace consists of two steps: pre-deposition and drive-in. The phosphorous doping profile via thermal diffusion often exhibits high concentrations in the surface-near emitter, which result in a recombination increase. This layer, called the dead layer, should be inhibited in order to fabricate high efficiency silicon solar cells. In this paper, the amount of the POCl₃ flow rate was varied during the pre-deposition process in order to minimize the dead layer, and the characteristics of the phosphosilicate glass (PSG) and emitter were analyzed. From the secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and electrochemical capacitance–voltage profiler (ECV) measurements, the emitter formed using a POCl₃ flow rate of 1000 sccm contained the least amount of inactive dopant and resulted in reasonable performance in the silicon solar cell. As the POCl₃ flow rate increased, the doped silicon wafer included electrically inactive P near the surface, which functions as a defect degrading the electrical performance of the emitter. As a result of this, the removal of the dead layer containing the inactive P was attempted through dipping the doped wafer in a HF solution. After this process, the emitter saturation current density and implied V_oc were improved. The completed solar cells and their external quantum efficiencies at a short wavelength also demonstrated improved performance. A quantitative analysis of the emitter can provide a deeper understanding of methods to improve the electrical characteristics of the silicon solar cell.     

选择性发射极晶体硅太阳电池的二维器件模拟及性能优化

利用PC2D二维模拟软件对选择性发射极晶体硅太阳电池(SE电池)进行了器件模拟和参数优化的研究.在对丝网印刷磷浆法制备的SE电池的实测典型电流-电压曲线实现完美拟合的基础上,全面系统地研究了栅线、基区、选择性发射区和背表面场层等的参数对电池性能的影响.模拟表明:基区少子寿命、前表面复合速度和背表面复合速度是对电池效率影响幅度最大的三个参数.在所研究的参数范围内,当基区少子寿命从50μs上升到600μs时,电池效率从18.53%上升到19.27%.低的前表面复合速度是使发射区方块电阻配比优化有意义的前提.要取得理想的电池效率,背表面复合速度需控制在500 cm/s以下.此外,对于不同的前表面复合速度,电池效率的最大值总是在50—90Ω/□的重掺区方阻、110—180Ω/□的轻掺区方阻的范围内取得.对不同的栅线数目,重掺区宽度与栅线间距之比为32%时,电池的效率最高.另外,在主栅结构保持较低面积比率的前提下,主栅数目的增加也可提高效率.最后,通过优化p型SE电池的效率可达到20.45%.     

冷冻靶中硅冷却臂的温度场和力学分析

冷冻靶是实现惯性约束聚变高能量增益的重要靶型。冷却臂是冷冻靶的重要部件之一,通过它将冷源与铝套筒相连接,用于获得靶丸内均匀氘氚冰层时所需的精确温度,同时冷却臂也用于均匀夹持铝套筒。首先测试分析了硅材料在深低温下的热传导系数,表明硅材料在该温区具有优异的热传导能力。研究了硅冷却臂结构参数对冷却臂温度场分布的影响。分析不同晶向硅冷却臂周向均匀夹持铝套筒的特性,提出基于(111)晶向硅片研制冷却臂。研究了冷却臂力臂夹持力和共振频率,并对硅冷却臂的热-结构耦合进行分析。最后设计具有16个夹持力臂的二级分叉结构的冷却臂。基于微电子机械系统技术研制了硅冷却臂样机,并测试了冷却臂的侧壁垂直度和力学特性。将研制的硅冷却臂与铝套筒进行装配,表明冷却臂中力臂的力学特性能够实现对套筒的夹持。     

Light‐induced degradation and regeneration of multicrystalline silicon Al‐BSF and PERC solar cells

Light‐induced degradation (LID) is a well‐known problem faced by p‐type Czochralski (Cz) monocrystalline silicon (mono‐Si) wafer solar cells. In mono‐Si material, the physical mechanism has been traced to the formation of recombination active boron‐oxygen (B–O) complexes, which can be permanently deactivated through a regeneration process. In recent years, LID has also been identified to be a significant problem for multicrystalline silicon (multi‐Si) wafer solar cells, but the exact physical mechanism is still unknown. In this work, we study the effect of LID in two different solar cell structures, aluminium back‐surface‐field (Al‐BSF) and aluminium local back‐surface‐field (Al‐LBSF or PERC (passivated emitter and rear cell)) multi‐Si solar cells. The large‐area (156 mm × 156 mm) multi‐Si solar cells are light soaked under constant 1‐sun illumination at elevated temperatures of 90 °C. Our study shows that, in general, PERC multi‐Si solar cells degrade faster and to a greater extent than Al‐BSF multi‐Si solar cells. The total degradation and regeneration can occur within ～320 hours for PERC cells and within ～200 hours for Al‐BSF cells, which is much faster than the timescales previously reported for PERC cells. An important finding of this work is that Al‐BSF solar cells can also achieve almost complete regeneration, which has not been reported before. The maximum degradation in Al‐BSF cells is shown to reduce from 2% (relative) to an average of 1.5% (relative) with heavier phosphorus diffusion.     

飞秒纳秒脉冲激光微构造和掺杂单晶硅

在SF6气氛下，分别利用钛宝石飞秒脉冲激光与掺钕钇铝石榴石纳秒脉冲激光对单晶硅表面进行了微构造和重掺杂，以用于光伏材料。对制备的单晶硅表面微结构的形貌、结晶性和硫元素杂质含量与分布进行了研究。实验结果表明纳秒脉冲激光制备的单晶硅表面微结构的薄层电阻较小，缺陷密度较低（结晶性高），硫元素杂质含量较高且在表面分布的范围较广，深度较大（约1 m）。此外，材料的可见-近红外波段吸收率可接近80%。基于纳秒脉冲激光微构造的单晶硅的优异性能，在样品表面制备了有效光照面积达8 cm2的太阳能电池。其中，最佳太阳能电池的串联电阻、开路电压、短路电流密度分别为0.5 , 503 mV, 35 mA/cm2，转换效率约12%。上述太阳能电池性能还可通过优化制备工艺进一步提高。