Silicon solar cells made by a self-aligned, selective-emitter, plasma-etchback process

Patent · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1999

OSTI ID:872148

Ruby, Douglas S ^[1]; Schubert, William K ^[1]; Gee, James M ^[1]

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1. Albuquerque, NM

A potentially low-cost process for forming and passivating a selective emitter. The process uses a plasma etch of the heavily doped emitter to improve its performance. The grids of the solar cell are used to mask the plasma etch so that only the emitter in the region between the grids is etched, while the region beneath the grids remains heavily doped for low contact resistance. This process is potentially low-cost because it requires no alignment. After the emitter etch, a silicon nitride layer is deposited by plasma-enhanced, chemical vapor deposition, and the solar cell is annealed in a forming gas.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• Assignee: Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
• Patent Number(s): US 5871591
• OSTI ID: 872148
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

silicon
solar
cells
self-aligned
selective-emitter
plasma-etchback
process
potentially
low-cost
forming
passivating
selective
emitter
plasma
etch
heavily
doped
improve
performance
grids
cell
mask
region
etched
beneath
remains
contact
resistance
requires
alignment
nitride
layer
deposited
plasma-enhanced
chemical
vapor
deposition
annealed
gas
forming gas
heavily doped
silicon nitride
chemical vapor
solar cell
solar cells
vapor deposition
silicon solar
contact resistance
plasma etch
nitride layer
low-cost process
plasma-etchback process
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