Novel Process for Screen-Printed Selective Area Front Polysilicon Contacts for TOPCon Cells Using Laser Oxidation
Abstract
The efficiency potential of double-side tunnel oxide passivated contact (DS-TOPCon) solar cells is limited by parasitic absorption in the front poly-Si layer, despite excellent passivation and high VOC. The use of patterned poly-Si only under the front metal grid lines can significantly reduce the parasitic absorption loss without sacrificing voltage. In this work, we demonstrate a simple, manufacturing-friendly method of patterning the front poly-Si using a nanosecond UV (355 nm) laser. We found that with laser powers ≥3 W at a 400 mm/s scan speed, an estimated 1–4 nm thick stoichiometric SiO2 layer was grown on TOPCon. This served as a mask for KOH-etching of 200 nm poly-Si, allowing for patterning of poly-Si fingers required for selective TOPCon. While laser powers above 3 W caused substantial deterioration in passivation quality, the resulting damage in J0 was largely recovered by subsequent PECVD SiNx deposition. At 3 W, the full area J0 was found to be 36.8 fA·cm–2. Furthermore, this translates to 1.68 fA·cm–2 for 4.48% coverage from the wing area of the polyfinger lines (100 lines–100 μm wide and 30 μm metal) contributing to a total front J0 of ~10 fA·cm–2, well suited for 25% efficient solar cells
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1];
[1];
[2];
[1]
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); National Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ., Tainan (Taiwan)
- National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1895326
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 2282746
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0008562; EE0009350
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 2156-3381
- Publisher:
- IEEE
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 42 ENGINEERING; double-side TOPCon; laser oxidation; passivating contacts; screen-printed contacts; selective area contacts; Double side TOPCon, Laser oxidation, Selective area contacts, passivating contacts, screen printed contacts
Citation Formats
Dasgupta, Sagnik, Ok, Young-Woo, Upadhyaya, Vijaykumar D., Choi, Wook-Jin, Huang, Ying-Yuan, Duttagupta, Shubham, and Rohatgi, Ajeet. Novel Process for Screen-Printed Selective Area Front Polysilicon Contacts for TOPCon Cells Using Laser Oxidation. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1109/jphotov.2022.3196822.
Dasgupta, Sagnik, Ok, Young-Woo, Upadhyaya, Vijaykumar D., Choi, Wook-Jin, Huang, Ying-Yuan, Duttagupta, Shubham, & Rohatgi, Ajeet. Novel Process for Screen-Printed Selective Area Front Polysilicon Contacts for TOPCon Cells Using Laser Oxidation. United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/jphotov.2022.3196822
Dasgupta, Sagnik, Ok, Young-Woo, Upadhyaya, Vijaykumar D., Choi, Wook-Jin, Huang, Ying-Yuan, Duttagupta, Shubham, and Rohatgi, Ajeet. Mon .
"Novel Process for Screen-Printed Selective Area Front Polysilicon Contacts for TOPCon Cells Using Laser Oxidation". United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/jphotov.2022.3196822. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1895326.
@article{osti_1895326,
title = {Novel Process for Screen-Printed Selective Area Front Polysilicon Contacts for TOPCon Cells Using Laser Oxidation},
author = {Dasgupta, Sagnik and Ok, Young-Woo and Upadhyaya, Vijaykumar D. and Choi, Wook-Jin and Huang, Ying-Yuan and Duttagupta, Shubham and Rohatgi, Ajeet},
abstractNote = {The efficiency potential of double-side tunnel oxide passivated contact (DS-TOPCon) solar cells is limited by parasitic absorption in the front poly-Si layer, despite excellent passivation and high VOC. The use of patterned poly-Si only under the front metal grid lines can significantly reduce the parasitic absorption loss without sacrificing voltage. In this work, we demonstrate a simple, manufacturing-friendly method of patterning the front poly-Si using a nanosecond UV (355 nm) laser. We found that with laser powers ≥3 W at a 400 mm/s scan speed, an estimated 1–4 nm thick stoichiometric SiO2 layer was grown on TOPCon. This served as a mask for KOH-etching of 200 nm poly-Si, allowing for patterning of poly-Si fingers required for selective TOPCon. While laser powers above 3 W caused substantial deterioration in passivation quality, the resulting damage in J0 was largely recovered by subsequent PECVD SiNx deposition. At 3 W, the full area J0 was found to be 36.8 fA·cm–2. Furthermore, this translates to 1.68 fA·cm–2 for 4.48% coverage from the wing area of the polyfinger lines (100 lines–100 μm wide and 30 μm metal) contributing to a total front J0 of ~10 fA·cm–2, well suited for 25% efficient solar cells},
doi = {10.1109/jphotov.2022.3196822},
journal = {IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics},
number = 6,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2022},
month = {Mon Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2022}
}
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