Investigation of Reactive Silver Ink Formula for Reduced Silver Consumption in Silicon Heterojunction Metallization

DiGregorio, Steven J.; Martinez-Szewczyk, Michael; Raikar, Subbarao; Bertoni, Mariana I.; Hildreth, Owen J.

doi:10.1021/acsaem.2c03503

Investigation of Reactive Silver Ink Formula for Reduced Silver Consumption in Silicon Heterojunction Metallization

Journal Article · Thu Feb 23 23:00:00 EST 2023 · ACS Applied Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.2c03503· OSTI ID:2397024

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Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (United States)
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)

Silver is the most expensive non-silicon component in photovoltaic cells. This is particularly salient for silicon heterojunction (SHJ) cells, which rely on large quantities of low-temperature silver pastes (LT-SP). SHJ cells would benefit greatly from an industrially scalable metallization process that simultaneously offers low silver consumption, low finger resistivities (<20 μΩ·cm), and low processing temperatures. Printed reactive silver inks (RSI) are an innovative candidate to this end. Furthermore, this work furthers the research on RSI metallization by investigating the impact of ink formula on properties pertinent to SHJ cells, including electrical properties, line width, ink splatter, silver consumption, cell performance, and adhesion. We introduce a scalable, high-throughput flexible needle contact printing approach for metallization that solves many of the issues associated with drop-on-demand printing. The printed silver fingers are characterized using electrical measurements and top-down and cross-sectional microscopy. The best performing ink, consisting of silver acetate, ethylamine, and formic acid, achieved silver fingers with total resistivities of 3.1 μΩ·cm and contact resistivities of 3.2 mΩ·cm² when printed at 61 °C. This ink metallized a full-sized 156 mm × 156 mm SHJ cell. This is the first reported data for RSI metallization of a full-sized SHJ cell and shows how an optimized RSI can achieve similar performances to LT-SP while consuming 80–90% less silver.

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)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0008166

OSTI ID:: 2397024

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Energy Materials, Journal Name: ACS Applied Energy Materials Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 6; ISSN 2574-0962

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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