Screen-Printed Contacts for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells: An Overview

Mehta, Vishal R.; Sopori, Bhushan L.; Ravindra, Nuggehalli M.

doi:10.1680/jemmr.22.00021

Screen-Printed Contacts for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells: An Overview

Journal Article · Wed Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Emerging Materials Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1680/jemmr.22.00021· OSTI ID:1876874

Mehta, Vishal R.; Sopori, Bhushan L.; Ravindra, Nuggehalli M.

Over the years, the photovoltaic market, worldwide, has been witnessing a double-digit growth rate. The silicon solar cell manufacturing technology has evolved to utilize raw materials optimally to address this growth. One of the ways in which manufacturers are addressing the challenge is by increasing the cell size and making thinner wafers. With this change in parameters, understanding the metal contact formation in solar cells becomes paramount to improve their efficiency. Screen printing is a widely used method to form metal contacts on solar cells and is ideally suited for large-volume manufacturing. This paper presents a review of the (a) role of screen printing in various solar cell architectures and (b) existing models for current conduction and contact formation mechanisms. An alternate approach to current conduction and contact formation mechanism in silicon solar cells is proposed.

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

DOE Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1876874

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5K00-83473; MainId:84246; UUID:a5d0695f-a2eb-48d7-9020-9ab66999b0dd; MainAdminID:64874

Journal Information:: Emerging Materials Research, Journal Name: Emerging Materials Research Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 11

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Related Subjects

MATERIALS SCIENCE
SOLAR ENERGY
contacts
interfaces
screen printing
semiconductors
silicon solar cells

Screen-Printed Contacts for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells: An Overview

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