• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.18 no.7
• /
• pp.662-666
• /
• 2005

Silicon nitride $(SiN_x)$ film is a promising material for anti-reflection coating and passivation of multicrystalline silicon (me-Si) solar cells. In this work, a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system with batch-type reactor tube was used to prepare highly robust $SiN_x$ films for screen-printed mc-Si solar cells. The Gas flow ratio, $R=[SiH_4]/[NH_3]$, in a mixture of silane and ammonia was varied in the range of 0.0910.235 while maintaining the total flow rate of the process gases to 4,200 sccm. The refractive index of the $SiN_x$ film deposited with a gas flow ratio of 0.091 was measured to be 2.03 and increased to 2.37 as the gas flow ratio increased to 0.235. The highest efficiency of the cell was $14.99\%$ when the flow rate of $SiH_4$ was 350 sccm (R=0.091). Generally, we observed that the efficiency of the mc-Si solar cell decreased with increasing R. From the analysis of the reflectance and the quantum efficiency of the cell, the decrease in the efficiency was shown to originate mainly from an increase in the surface reflectance for a high flow rate of $SiH_4$ during the deposition of $SiN_x$ films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2007.06a
• /
• pp.192-193
• /
• 2007

An evaporated Ti/Pd/Ag contact system is most widely used to make high-efficiency silicon solar cells, however, the system is not cost effective due to expensive materials and vacuum techniques. Commercial solar cells with screen-printed contacts formed by using Ag paste suffer from a low fill factor and a high shading loss because of high contact resistance and low aspect ratio. Low-cost Ni and Cu metal contacts have been formed by using electro less plating and electroplating techniques to replace the Ti/Pd/Ag and screen-printed Ag contacts. Ni/Cu alloy is plated on a silicon substrate by electro-deposition of the alloy from an acetate electrolyte solution, and nickel-silicide formation at the interface between the silicon and the nickel enhances stability and reduces the contact resistance. It was, therefore, found that nickel-silicide was suitable for high-efficiency solar cell applications. Cu was electroplated on the Ni layer by using a light induced plating method. The Cu electroplating solution was made up of a commercially available acid sulfate bath and additives to reduce the stress of the copper layer. In this paper, we investigated low-cost Ni/Cu contact formation by electro less and electroplating for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Solar Energy
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.17-26
• /
• 1997

Since PESC(passivated emitter solar cell) was developed in 1985, high efficiency silicon solar cell technology based on planar technology has been improved in the order of PERC, Point Contact Solar Cell, PERL. BCSC and DSBC, which do not require photolithography, are expected to replace commercial screen printed cells because of its potential for low cost and high efficiency. In this paper, history and characteristics of each type of cells are reviewed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.91.2-91.2
• /
• 2010

The use of plated front contact for metallization of silicon solar cell may alternative technologies as a screen printed and silver paste contact. This technologies should allow the formation of contact with low contact resistivity a high line conductivity and also reduction of shading losses. The better performance of Ni/Cu contacts is attributed to the reduced series resistance due to better contact conductivity of Ni with Si and subsequent electroplating of Cu on Ni. The ability to pattern narrower grid lines for reduced light shading combined with the lower resistance of a metal silicide contact and improved conductivity of plated deposit. This improves the FF as the series resistance is deduced. This is very much required in the case of low concentrator solar cells in which the series resistance is one of the important and dominant parameter that affect the cell performance. A selective emitter structure with highly dopes regions underneath the metal contacts, is widely known to be one of the most promising high-efficiency solution in solar cell processing. This paper using selective emitter structure technique, fabricated Ni/Cu plating metallization cell with a cell efficiency of 17.19%.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.24 no.12
• /
• pp.1010-1017
• /
• 2011

The use of plated front contact for metallization of silicon solar cell may alternative technologies as a screen printed and silver paste contact. This technologies should allow the formation of contact with low contact resistivity a high line conductivity and also reduction of shading losses. A selective emitter structure with highly dopes regions underneath the metal contacts, is widely known to be one of the most promising high-efficiency solution in solar cell processing. When fabricated Ni/Cu plating metallization cell with a selective emitter structure, it has been shown that efficiencies of up to 18% have been achieved using this technology.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.41 no.5
• /
• pp.365-372
• /
• 2017

Finger electrodes on a crystalline silicon solar cell are required to be constructed as narrow and thick as possible in order to minimize shading losses and electrical resistance. The most common means to construct high-aspect ratio finger electrodes has been screen-printing, but it has difficulty achieving fine finger electrodes because the as-printed finger width is generally wider by 1.3-2.2 times the screen opening width. Consequently, it requires an extremely small screen opening (below $30{\mu}m$) in order to achieve a finger width below $40{\mu}m$. However, the use of such a small screen opening could result in various problems, such as high printing pressure, defective transport of silver paste, and high electrical resistance due to unfavorable mesh marks left on the finger electrodes. In this study, dispensing printing with a screw pump is introduced as an alternative to conventional screen-printing and its unique traits in the front side metallization of crystalline silicon solar cells is discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.490.2-490.2
• /
• 2014

Since the general solar cells accept sun light at the front side, excluding the electrode area, electrons move from the emitter to the front electrode and start to collect at the grid edge. Thus the edge of gridline can be important for electrical properties of screen-printed silicon solar cells. In this study, the improvement of electrical properties in screen-printed crystalline silicon solar cells by contact treatment of grid edge was investigated. The samples with $60{\Omega}/{\square}$ and $70{\Omega}/{\square}$ emitter were prepared. After front side of samples was deposited by SiNx commercial Ag paste and Al paste were printed at front side and rear side respectively. Each sample was co-fired between $670^{\circ}C$ and $780^{\circ}C$ in the rapid thermal processing (RTP). After the firing process, the cells were dipped in 2.5% hydrofluoric acid (HF) at room temperature for various times under 60 seconds and then rinsed in deionized water. (This is called "contact treatment") After dipping in HF for a certain period, the samples from each firing condition were compared by measurement. Cell performances were measured by Suns-Voc, solar simulator, the transfer length method and a field emission scanning electron microscope. According to HF treatment, once the thin glass layer at the grid edge was etched, the current transport was changed from tunneling via Ag colloids in the glass layer to direct transport via Ag colloids between the Ag bulk and the emitter. Thus, the transfer length as well as the specific contact resistance decreased. For more details a model of the current path was proposed to explain the effect of HF treatment at the edge of the Ag grid. It is expected that HF treatment may help to improve the contact of high sheet-resistance emitter as well as the contact of a high specific contact resistance.

• Journal of Korean Vacuum Science & Technology
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.120-125
• /
• 2002

The aim of the present work is to optimized the annealing parameter in both front and back screen printed contacts realization on p-type multicrystalline silicon and with phosphorus diffused. The RTA treatments were carried out at various temperatures from 600 to 850$\^{C}$ and annealing time ranging from 3 min to 5 min in air, O$_2$and N$_2$ ambiance. The contacts parameters are obtained according to Transmission Line Model measurements. A good RTA cycle is obtained with a temperature plateau of 700$\^{C}$-750$\^{C}$ and annealing ambiance of air. Several processing parameters required for good cell efficiency are discussed with an emphasis placed on the critical role of the glass frit in the aluminum paste. A anamolus behaviour of Aluminum n-doping on p-type Si wafer, contact at high temperature have also been studied.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.08a
• /
• pp.313.1-313.1
• /
• 2013

현재 결정질 실리콘 태양전지의 전 후면 전극의 형성은 스크린 프린팅 방법이 주를 이루고 있다. 스크린 프린팅 방법은 쉽고 빠르게 인쇄가 가능한 반면 단가가 높고 금속 페이스트에 첨가된 여러 혼합물에 의해서 전극과 기판 사이의 저항이 크다는 단점이 있다. 본 논문에서는 스크린 프린팅 방법으로 태양전지의 seed layer를 인쇄하고, Cu도금을 진행함으로써 태양전지의 전기적 특성을 비교하였다. 주요 전극 형성을 Cu 도금을 사용함으로써 전극과 기판사이의 저항을 감소시키고 값비싼 Ag페이스트를 값싼 Cu로 대체함으로써 가격을 낮출 수 있는 장점이 있다. 실험에 사용된 Si 웨이퍼 특성은 $156{\times}156$ mm2, 200 ${\mu}m$, 0.5-3.0 ${\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and p-type 웨이퍼를 사용하였다. 웨이퍼는 표면조직화, p-n접합 형성, 반사방지막 코팅을 하였으며 스크린 프린팅 방법을 이용해 전 후면 전극을 인쇄하고 열처리 과정을 통해 전극을 형성하였다. 이 후 전면에 Cu도금을 실행하여 태양전지를 완성하였다. 완성된 태양전지는 솔라 시뮬레이터 및 TLM패턴을 이용하여 전기적 특성을 분석하였으며, SEM과 linescan, 광학현미경 등을 이용하여 전극을 분석하였다.

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