Isolating p- and n-Doped Fingers With Intrinsic Poly-Si in Passivated Interdigitated Back Contact Silicon Solar Cells

Hartenstein, Matthew B.; Nemeth, William; LaSalvia, Vincenzo; Harvey, Steve; Guthrey, Harvey; Theingi, San; Page, Matthew; Young, David L.; Stradins, Paul; Agarwal, Sumit

doi:10.1109/jphotov.2020.3021668

Isolating p- and n-Doped Fingers With Intrinsic Poly-Si in Passivated Interdigitated Back Contact Silicon Solar Cells

Journal Article · Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/jphotov.2020.3021668· OSTI ID:1897213

^[1]; Nemeth, William ^[2]; LaSalvia, Vincenzo ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Theingi, San ^[2]; Page, Matthew ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Agarwal, Sumit ^[3]

Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)

Polycrystalline silicon on silicon oxide (poly-Si/SiO_x) passivating contacts enable ultra high efficiency interdigitated back contact silicon solar cells. To prevent shunt between n- and p-type doped fingers, an insulating region is required between them. We evaluate the use of intrinsic poly Si for this isolation region. Interdigitated fingers were formed by plasma deposition of doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon through mechanically aligned shadow masks, on top of a full-area intrinsic amorphous silicon layer. High temperature annealing then crystallized the a-Si:H to poly Si and drove in the dopants. Two mechanisms were identified which cause contamination of the intrinsic poly Si gap during processing. During deposition of doped fingers, we show using secondary ion mass spectrometry and conductivity measurements that the intrinsic gap becomes contaminated by doped a-Si:H tails several nanometers thick to concentrations of ~10²⁰ cm^-3. Another source of contamination occurs during high-temperature annealing, where dopants desorb from doped regions and readsorb onto intrinsic a Si:H. Both pathways reduce the resistivity of the intrinsic gap from ~10⁵ Ω·cm to ~10^-1 Ω·cm. We show that plasma etching of the a-Si:H surface before crystallizing with a capping layer can eliminate the contamination of the intrinsic poly-Si, maintaining a resistivity of ~10⁵ Ω·cm. Lastly, this demonstrates masked plasma deposition as a dopant patterning method for Si solar cells.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0007553

OSTI ID:: 1897213

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1721755

Journal Information:: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Journal Name: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 10; ISSN 2156-3381

Publisher:: IEEECopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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References (52)

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