• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.34-39
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• 2011

Screen printing method is a common way to fabricate the crystalline silicon solar cell with low-cost and high-efficiency. The screen printing metallization use silver paste and aluminum paste for front and rear contact, respectively. Especially the rear contact between aluminum and silicon is important to form the back surface filed (Al-BSF) after firing process. BSF plays an important role to reduces the surface recombination due to $p^+$ doping of back surface. However, Al electrode on back surface leads to bow occurring by differences in coefficient of thermal expansion of the aluminum and silicon. In this paper, we studied the properties of mono crystalline silicon solar cell for rear electrode with aluminum and aluminum-boron in order to characterize bow and BSF of each paste. The 156*156 $m^2$ p-type silicon wafers with $200{\mu}m$ thickness and 0.5-3 ${\Omega}\;cm$ resistivity were used after texturing, diffusion, and antireflection coating. The characteristics of solar cells was obtained by measuring vernier callipers, scanning electron microscope and light current-voltage. Solar cells with aluminum paste on the back surface were achieved with $V_{OC}$ = 0.618V, JSC = 35.49$mA/cm^2$, FF(Fill factor) = 78%, Efficiency = 17.13%.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1994.07b
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• pp.1277-1279
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• 1994

In the structure of ZnO/nip-SiC: H/metal substrate amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells, the effects of inserting a rear textured ZnO in the p-SiC:H/metal interface and a graded bandgap buffer layer in the i/p-SiC:H have been analysed by computer simulation. The incident light was taken to have an intensity of $100mW/cm^2$(AM-1). The thickness of the a-Si:H n, ${\delta}$-doped a-SiC:H p, and buffer layers was assumed to be $200{\AA},\;66{\AA}$, and $80{\AA}$, respectively. The scattering coefficients of the front and back ZnO were taken to be 0.2 and 0.7, respectively. Inserting the rear buffer layer significantly increases the open circuit voltage($V_{oc}$) due to reduction of the i/p interface recombination rate. The use of textured ZnO markedly improves collection efficiency in the long wavelengths( above ${\sim}550nm$ ) by back scattering and light confinement effects, resulting in dramatic enhancement of the short circuit current density($J_{sc}$). By using the rear buffer and textured ZnO, the i-layer thickness of the ceil for obtaining the maximum efficiency becomes thinner(${\sim}2500{\AA}$). From these results, it is concluded that the use of textured ZnO and buffer layer at the backside of the ceil is very effective for enhancing the conversion efficiency and reducing the degradation of a-Si:H pin-type solar cells.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.12-15
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• 2016

Screen printing technique followed by firing has commonly been used as metallization for both laboratory and industrial based solar cells. In the solar cell industry, the firing process is usually conducted in a belt furnace and needs to be optimized for fabricating high efficiency solar cells. The printed-Al layer on the silicon is rapidly heated at over $800^{\circ}C$ which forms a layer of back surface field (BSF) between Si-Al interfaces. The BSF layer forms $p-p^+$ structure on the rear side of cells and lower rear surface recombination velocity (SRV). To have low SRV, deep $p^+$ layer and uniform junction formation are required. In this experiment, firing process was carried out by using conventional tube furnace with $N_2$ gas atmosphere to optimize $V_{oc}$ of laboratory cells. To measure the thickness of BSF layer, selective etching was conducted by using a solution composed of hydrogen fluoride, nitric acid and acetic acid. The $V_{oc}$ and pseudo efficiency were measured by Suns-$V_{oc}$ to compare cell properties with varied firing condition.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.128-132
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• 2021

Advances in screen printing technology have been led to development of high efficiency silicon solar cells. As a post PERx structure, an n-type wafer-based rear side TOPCon structure has been actively researched for further open-circuit voltage (Voc) improvement. In the case of the metal contact of the TOPCon structure, the poly-Si thickness is very important because the passivation of the substrate will be degraded when the metal paste penetrates until substrate. However, the thin poly-Si layer has advantages in terms of current density due to reduction of parasitic absorption. Therefore, poly-Si thickness and firing temperature must be considered to optimize the metal contact of the TOPCon structure. In this paper, we varied poly-Si thickness and firing peak temperature to evaluate metal induced recombination (Jom) and contact resistivity. Jom was evaluated by using PL imaging technique which does not require both side metal contact. As a results, we realized that the SiN_x deposition conditions can affect the metal contact of the TOPCon structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.346.2-346.2
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• 2016

The rear side contact recombination in the crystalline silicon solar cell could be reduced by back surface field. We formed polycrystalline silicon as a back surface field through crystallization of amorphous silicon. A thin silicon oxide applied to the passivation layer. We used quasi-steady-state photoconductance measurement to analyze electrical properties with various annealing condition. And, blister formed on surface of wafer during the annealing process. We observed the blister after varied annealing process with wafer of various surface. Shape and density of blister is influenced by various annealing temperature and process time. As the annealing temperature became higher, the average diameter of blister is decreased and total number of blister is increased. The sample with the $600^{\circ}C$ annealing temperature and 1 min annealing time exhibited the highest implied open circuit voltage and lifetime. We predicted that the various shape and density of blister affects the lifetime and implied open circuit voltage.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.1034-1040
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• 1997

A solar cell conversion effiency was degraded by grain boundary effect in polycrystalline silicon. Grain boundaries acted as potential barriers as well as recombination centers for the photo-generated carriers. To reduce these effects of the grain boundaries we investigated various influencing factors such as emitter thickness thermal treatment preferential chemical etching of grain boundaries grid design contact metal and top metallization along boundaries. Pretreatment in $N_2$atmosphere and gettering by POCl$_3$and Al were performed to obtain multicrystalline silicon of the reduced defect density. Structural electrical and optical properties of slar cells were characterized before and after each fabrication process. Improved conversion efficiencies of solar cell were obtained by a combination of pretreatment above 90$0^{\circ}C$ emitter layer of 0.43${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ Al diffusion in to grain boundaries on rear side fine grid finger top Yb metal and buried contact metallization along grain boundaries.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.68-71
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• 2020

In this study, SiNx and Al₂O₃ thin film was manufactured using PECVD deposition process and applied to crystalline silicon solar cells, resulting in 16.7% conversion efficiency. The structural improvement experiment of the rear electrode resulted in a 1.7% improvement in conversion efficiency compared to the reference cell by reducing the recombination rate of minority carriers and increasing the carrier lifetime by forming a passivation layer consisting of SiNx and Al₂O₃ thin films through the PECVD process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.430-430
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• 2012

The surface recombination velocity of the silicon solar cell could be reduced by passivation with insulating layers such as $SiO_2$, SiNx, $Al_2O_3$, a-Si. Especially, the aluminium oxide has advantages over other materials at rear surface, because negative fixed charge via Al vacancy has an additional back surface field effect (BSF). It can increase the lifetime of the hole carrier in p-type silicon. The aluminium oxide thin film layer is usually deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique, which is expensive and has low deposition rate. In this study, ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering technique was adopted to overcome drawbacks of ALD technique. In addition, it has been known that by annealing aluminium oxide layer in nitrogen atmosphere, the negative fixed charge effect could be further improved. By using ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering technique, oxygen to nitrogen ratio could be precisely controlled. Fabricated aluminium oxy-nitride (AlON) layer on silicon wafers were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the atomic concentration ratio and chemical states. The electrical properties of Al/($Al_2O_3$ or $SiO_2/Al_2O_3$)/Si (MIS) devices were characterized by the C-V measurement technique using HP 4284A. The detailed characteristics of the AlON passivation layer will be shown and discussed.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.31-41
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• 2016

n-type PERT (passivated emitter, rear totally diffused) bifacial solar cells with boron and phosphorus diffusion as p+ emitter and n+ BSF (back surface field) have attracted significant research interest recently. In this work, the influences of wafer thickness, bulk lifetime, emitter, BSF on the photovoltaic characteristics of solar cells are discussed. The performance of the solar cell is determined by using one-dimensional solar cell simulation software PC1D. The simulation results show that the key role of the BSF is to decrease the surface doping concentration reducing the recombination and thus, increasing the cell efficiency. A lightly phosphorus doped BSF (LD BSF) was experimentally optimized to get low surface dopant concentration for n type bifacial solar cells. Pre-oxidation combined with a multi-plateau drive-in, using limited source diffusion was carried out before pre-deposition. It could reduce the surface dopant concentration with minimal impact on the sheet resistance.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2023

In a solar cell, degradation refers to the decrease in performance parameters caused by defects originated due to various causes. During the fabrication process of solar cells, degradation is generally related to the processes such as passivation or firing. There exist sources of many types of degradation; however, the exact cause of Light and elevated Temperature Induced Degradation (LeTID) is yet to be determined. It is reported that the degradation and the regeneration occur due to the recombination of hydrogen and an arbitrary substance. In this paper, we report the deposition of Al₂O₃ and SiN_X on silicon wafers used in the Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact (PERC) solar structure and its degradation pattern. A higher degradation rate was observed in the sample with single layer of Al₂O₃ only, which indicates that the degradation is affected by the presence or the absence of a passivation thin film. In order to alleviate the degradation, optimization of different steps should be carried out in consideration of degradation in the solar cell fabrication process.