Premium
Front and rear silicon‐nitride‐passivated multicrystalline silicon solar cells with an efficiency of 18.1%
Author(s) -
Mittelstädt L.,
Dauwe S.,
Metz A.,
Hezel R.,
Häßler C.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
progress in photovoltaics: research and applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.286
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1099-159X
pISSN - 1062-7995
DOI - 10.1002/pip.423
Subject(s) - passivation , silicon nitride , plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition , materials science , silicon , optoelectronics , nitride , solar cell , crystalline silicon , aluminium , nanotechnology , layer (electronics) , composite material
A solar cell process designed to utilise low‐temperature plasma‐enhanced chemical vapour deposited (PECVD) silicon nitride (SiN x ) films as front and rear surface passivation was applied to fabricate multicrystalline silicon (mc‐Si) solar cells. Despite the simple photolithography‐free processing sequence, an independently confirmed efficiency of 18.1% (cell area 2 × 2 cm 2 ) was achieved. This excellent efficiency can be predominantly attributed to the superior quality of the rear surface passivation scheme consisting of an SiN x film in combination with a local aluminium back‐surface field (LBSF). Thus, it is demonstrated that low‐temperature PECVD SiN x films are well suited to achieve excellent rear surface passivation on mc‐Si. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.