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In this paper, first generation back-contact back-junction (BC-BJ) silicon solar cells with cell efficiencies well above eta = 20% were fabricated. The process sequence is industrially feasible, requires only one high-temperature step (co-diffusion), and relies only on industrially available pattering technologies. The silicon-doping is performed from pre-patterned solid diffusion sources, which allow for the precise adjustment of phosphorus-and boron-doping levels. Based on the investigated process technologies, BC-BJ solar cells with gap and without gap between adjacent n+-and p+-doped areas were processed. On the one hand, a strong reduction of the process effort is possible by omitting the gap regions. On the other hand, parasitic tunneling currents through the narrow space charge region may occur. Hence, deep doped areas were realized to avoid tunneling currents in gap-free BC-BJ cells. This paper finishes with a detailed characterization of the manufactured cells including important cell measurements like I-V, SunsVOC, quantum efficiency, and an analysis of the cell specific fill factor losses.

In this study, we investigate the influence of different diffusion temperature profiles on the interstitial iron concentration before and after contact firing. It is shown that the positive influence of a low-temperature anneal after phosphorus diffusion is strongly reduced after contact firing as the formed precipitates dissolve again. On the other hand, a dissolution peak before the diffusion aims on a decrease in precipitate density and, therefore, leads to a reduced interstitial iron concentration especially after firing. The physical mechanisms during diffusion and firing are investigated with Sentaurus Process simulations. Furthermore, lifetime improvements in standard multicrystalline material could be achieved applying the dissolution peak before diffusion.

We simulate the precipitation of iron during the multicrystalline ingot crystallization process and the redistribution of iron during subsequent phosphorus diffusion gettering with a 2-D model. We compare the simulated size distribution of the precipitates with the X-ray fluorescence microscopy measurements of iron precipitates along a grain boundary. We find that the simulated and measured densities of precipitates larger than the experimental detection limit are in good agreement after the crystallization process. Additionally, we demonstrate that the measured decrease of the line density and the increase of the mean size of the iron precipitates after phosphorus diffusion gettering can be reproduced with the simulations. The size and spatial distribution of iron precipitates affect the kinetics of iron redistribution during the solar cell process and, ultimately, the recombination activity of the precipitated iron. Variations of the cooling rate after solidification and short temperature peaks before phosphorus diffusion strongly influence the precipitate size distribution. The lowest overall density of iron precipitates after phosphorus diffusion is obtained in the simulations with a temperature peak before phosphorus diffusion, followed by moderate cooling rates.

Photoluminescence (PL) imaging is a promising characterization technique for rating and sorting of multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) as-cut wafers concerning to their material quality. It is inline applicable and yields high resolution images showing recombination active defects from crystallization which influence solar cell performance. In this contribution the basic concepts in ongoing work concerning relevant defects, rating results, statistics, algorithms and general approaches for the rating are summarized. Since 2009 wafers are sorted into five quality classes at Fraunhofer ISE. Details on the rating criteria are given and three examples for application are presented: (i) the impact of edge contaminations on the solar cell results, (ii) a comparison of wafer suppliers based on random samples from a statistical basis of 10,000 wafers and (iii) the results of an advanced rating and sorting of wafers for the manufacturing of highly efficient MWT-PERC solar cells. The results confirm that PL imaging can be used for a very precise rating of material quality.

Carrier mobility in silicon plays a crucial role for photovoltaic applications. While the influence of doping on mobility in standard monocrystalline silicon is well understood, recent research has been focused on the effects of crystal defects in multicrystalline (mc) silicon and of the presence of both acceptors and donors in compensated silicon, both introducing additional scattering centers influencing carrier mobility. In this work measurements of the majority carrier mobility have been carried out in two blocks of compensated multicrystalline silicon. Confirming existing results we come to the conclusion that with increasing compensation level mobilities may be significantly lower than predicted by Klaassen's mobility model, which is basically suited for the description of mobilities in compensated silicon as it accounts for scattering on both acceptors and donors. However, as this model is based on mobility data from uncompensated silicon, a compensation-related reduction of screening is not taken into account sufficiently. To describe mobilities in compensated silicon, a modification of Klaassen's mobility model based on published mobility data in compensated silicon is suggested.

In this paper we measure, spatially resolved, the efficiency potential of multicrystalline material. The excess carrier lifetime in the bulk affects the open-circuit voltage, the short-circuit current and the fill factor of a solar cell differently as different injection conditions apply. Therefore, we measure the bulk lifetime injection-dependent and analyze each IV -parameter separately. Furthermore, multicrystalline wafers with laterally varying bulk recombination need a spatially resolved analysis to explore the impact of large grains or dislocation clusters on the efficiency. The crucial information we need is the spatially resolved injection-dependent bulk lifetime. For this purpose, we use lifetime calibrated photoluminescence imaging with a varying generation rate. Measuring a surface passivated wafer after the important high temperature steps of a solar cell process ensures that we attain the bulk recombination that is relevant for the solar cell. Combining this information with a cell simulation, we deduce the maximum efficiency for every image point. We also discuss how to obtain global values from these images and investigate the effect of charge currents flowing laterally through the emitter using Sentaurus Device and Spice network simulations. A comparison of these simulated global values to measured IV -parameters on finished solar cells shows good agreement between the two. A detailed analysis of two mc-wafers from different feedstock shows limiting IV -parameters in different regions, efficiency reductions due to dislocations and explains differences in the fill factor of two equally processed solar cells. The analysis shows that evaluating the material related efficiency limitation of silicon wafers has to be done at the efficiency level, as the lifetime at one generation level alone is not sufficient.

Microscopic laser-doped regions in advanced solar cell concepts are analyzed to determine the doping density and to identify the damage caused by the laser process. For these investigations, microphotoluminescence spectroscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy are utilized to measure doping density, internal stress, and carrier lifetime with micrometer resolution. This analysis proves the high applicability of the microspectroscopic techniques for the characterization of laser-doped regions by analyzing the profile of the advanced local doping process and the laser-induced damage particularly at the edges of the highly doped regions.

Well suited and reliable values of the optical and electrical properties of thin indium tin oxide (ITO) films are needed in order to choose the optimal deposition parameters and to perform reliable modeling for solar cells design. In this work, a new method will be presented to evaluate the ITO transparency directly on silicon substrates. The effects of each deposition parameter that influences the ITO transparency and conductivity force a trade-off in the frame of values useful for SHJ solar cells. The deposition of our optimized ITO film on a textured wafer yields a weighted average reflectance as low as 4.4±0.2%. The deposition of an MgF2/ITO double-layer anti-reflection coating (DL-ARC) on textured cells increases the efficiency from 17.9%, measured immediately after contacts have been added to the ITO, to 18.4% after the MgF2 deposition. An annealing step at 200 °C for 10 min proved to further increase the efficiency up to 18.9%, for a total gain of 1%.

Reliable process control or predictions of solar cell efficiencies from minority carrier lifetimes on silicon wafers require precise lifetime measurements. For inhomogeneous material quality this implies the necessity of adequately averaged spatially resolved lifetime measurements. Materials such as, e.g. multicrystalline upgraded metallurgical grade silicon frequently feature relatively low lifetimes, high trap densities, and several material parameters (charge carrier mobilities and net dopant concentration) that are not straightforwardly predictable or measurable. As this may substantially compromise conventional lifetime measurements, we present a solely luminescence based lifetime imaging technique, which requires virtually no a priori information about material parameters. Our approach is based on a calibration of a wafer's photoluminescence image through a precise lifetime determination of a part of this wafer via quasi-steady-state photoluminescence. Carrier mobilities, net dopant concentration, and surface morphology leave the determination of lifetime virtually unaffected, the injection dependence of lifetime is properly taken into account, and lifetimes down to the timescale of a microsecond can be reliably measured.

This work deals with requirements regarding the solar cell process that allow or facilitate the introduction of fabrication processes for front side metallization. By taking experience with plating on solar cells both from the literature and from practical lab work, design rules for the solar cell and the plating process have been derived. Regarding the surface texture, small features (e.g., random pyramids < 5μm) have been found beneficial for plating processes both on printed seed layers and directly on silicon. A dense, pinhole-free anti-reflective coating suppresses so-called ghost plating as well as careful handling in production. Shunting, which is possible for laser edge isolation can be prevented by applying wet chemical edge isolation. An adjusted soldering process which brings in high energy within a short time is recommended. Infrared or inductive soldering are ideal for the connection of plated surfaces with ribbon. For plating on paste it is recommended that using plating electrolytes with pH>2 result in a good adhesion of the seed layer on the silicon surface. Further the glass content in the silver paste and the size of the glass particles have a big influence on the adhesion. A high glass content and small particles are beneficial for a following plating process. For direct plating on silicon an ablation of the ARC with a 355nm ps-laser is the best option for adhesion.

In the context of nickel silicide formation from plated nickel layers for solar cell metallization, there are several open questions regarding contact adhesion and electrical properties. Nanoscale characterization by transmission electron microscopy has been employed to support these investigations. Interfacial oxides and silicide phases were investigated on differently prepared samples by different analytical methods associated with transmission electron microscopy analysis. Processing variations included the pre-treatment of samples before nickel plating, the used plating solution and the thermal budget for the nickel–silicon solid-state reaction. It was shown that interface oxides of only few nm thickness on both silicon and nickel silicide are present on the samples, depending on the chosen process sequence, which have been shown to play an important role in adhesion of nickel on silicide in an earlier publication. From sample pretreatment variations, conclusions about the role of an interfacial oxide in silicide formation and its influence on phase formation were drawn. Such an oxide layer hinders silicide formation except for pinhole sites. This reduces the availability of Ni and causes a silicide with low Ni content to form. Without an interfacial oxide a continuous nickel silicide of greater depth, polycrystalline modification and expected phase according to thermal budget is formed. Information about the nature of silicide growth on typical solar cell surfaces could be obtained from silicide phase and geometric observations, which were supported by FIB tomography. The theory of isotropic NiSi growth and orientation dependent NiSi2 growth was derived. By this, a very well performing low-cost metallization for silicon solar cells has been brought an important step closer to industrial introduction.

Current losses at surfaces play a crucial role in the optimization of high-efficiency silicon solar cells. We present a new approach to characterize the surface recombination activity of interdigitated-back-contact (IBC) silicon solar cells by comparing experimental and simulated photoluminescence images (PL). The different recombination properties of the p- and n-doped regions of IBC cells in combination with the operating condition lead to contrast profiles in the PL image that vary with bias voltage. We achieve a good matching of experimental and simulated data for the investigated cells enabling the analysis of how sensitive the simulated contrast patterns are to changes in the surface recombination at the emitter, back- and front-surface-field and if a better matching of the experimental PL images is possible. Using these PL images in combination with simulations around the open circuit voltage Voc the determination of surface recombination velocities S and emitter saturation currents J0 on finished cells is made possible for the first time. This approach also opens a new path towards loss analysis of finished PERL, PERC, MWT and other silicon solar cells.

A map of local short-circuit current density (JSC) of a solar cell at standard irradiance spectra is a desirable source of information for current-loss analysis and device optimization. In this work, we present a new and easily implementable method to obtain such JSC maps as well as local external quantum efficiency graphs with a spatial resolution of about 100 µm, exemplified for silicon solar cells. The method is based on a pixel by pixel interpolation of external quantum efficiency maps obtained by spectrally resolved light-beam induced current measurements (SR-LBIC). The local data is integrated with an AM1.5G spectrum to obtain a JSC map with no additional measurement time beyond SR-LBIC image acquisition. The averaged currents over a map are in good agreement with global current–voltage measurements. Some of the possible applications of this method are presented and exemplified, including local quantum efficiency of a cast-mono solar cell, separation of JSC contributions from front side and bulk, quantitative determination of the electrical shading effect in IBC cells, the impact of the irradiance spectrum on local JSC for indoor photovoltaic applications and also the separation of optical and electrical current losses with newly introduced Pseudo-JSC maps based on internal quantum efficiency maps. Finally, the resulting JSC maps also present valuable information for several existing local cell-parameter imaging methods. This basic approach leads to an easily accessible, spatially resolved short-circuit current loss-analysis, which is in principle applicable to any solar cell structure.

An evolutionary approach to increase the cell efficiency of the industrially widely used Al-BSF Si solar cell design is the implementation of a lightly doped emitter and plated Ni-Ag front side contacts. This work shows that this approach can give a significant advantage to fully screen printed solar cells with cell efficiencies up to 19%. However, the adhesion of the plated contacts strongly depends on the tempering induced silicidation of the Ni layer. The application of macroscopic and microscopic characterization techniques indicates that the tempering induces local non-ohmic shunts due to a silicide spiking in the space charge region. The application of an additional selective emitter doping in this experiment could decrease the shunting probability but could not prevent it completely due to inhomogeneous doping depths on the textured surface.

The electrical material quality of multicrystalline (mc) silicon for photovoltaic applications suffers from crystal defects as well as from impurities that originate from the feedstock, the quartz crucible, and its coating. In this study, we investigate the influence of impurities from the crucible on efficiency losses in mc silicon solar cells, focusing on the limitation due to iron. The applicability of p-type mc silicon, crystallized in G1 sized crucibles of industrial material quality and very pure electrically fused silica, for a high-efficiency solar cell process is examined by measuring lifetime and interstitial iron concentration in the wafers after different processing steps and by estimating the cell efficiency potential from injection-dependent bulk lifetime measurements. Interstitial iron concentrations extracted from 2-D simulations of iron precipitation at crystal defects and gettering during processing agree well with Fei measurements at different process stages and explain the observations. Efficiency losses are quantified to losses due to segregated impurities diffused into the silicon melt, losses due to decorated crystal defects and losses due to solid-state diffusion into the crystal. By using a high-purity crucible, losses are reduced significantly and an efficiency gain of 0.5% absolute is estimated to be attainable on wafers with edge region.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the limiting role of crucible and coating impurities on material quality of multicrystalline silicon. Both solid body diffusion and diffusion into the silicon melt are considered in this study. Two ingots of size G1 have been analyzed. One of them was crystallized in a standard crucible, whereas the other was crystallized in a quartz crucible of very high purity. Focus is put on iron and cobalt as examples of typical impurity species. Iron was found in large concentrations in standard crucibles, and cobalt was proven to be a suitable marker impurity that is mainly found in the coating. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy data are exploited for the determination of impurity concentrations in crucible, coating, and within the crystal. With higher sensitivity for low concentration, PL imaging is applied for carrier lifetime and interstitial iron concentration measurements. The different findings are compared with modeling results of iron and cobalt in-diffusion by Sentaurus Process. The analysis of silicon wafers before and after gettering steps enable a quantification of impurity-limiting cell efficiency potential. Conclusions about the role of impurities from coated crucibles in large-scale crystallization are deduced.

To date, gallium-doped Czochralski (Cz) silicon has constituted a solar cell bulk material free of light-induced degradation. However, we measure light-induced degradation in gallium-doped Cz silicon in the presence of copper impurities. The measured degradation depends on the copper concentration and the material resistivity. Gallium-doped Cz silicon is found to be less sensitive to copper impurities than borondoped Cz silicon, emphasizing the role of boron in the formation of copper-related light-induced degradation.

In this Letter, we introduce a method of calculating the optimal wafer thickness for silicon solar cells with multicrystalline bulk material. The optimal thickness depends on the relation of bulk recombination to surface recombination and the light trapping. For multicrystalline silicon bulk recombination strongly varies laterally and with injection level, which complicates the calculations. A thickness optimization using the "Efficiency Limiting Bulk Recombination Analysis" (ELBA) takes all these effects correctly into account.

Photoluminescence-based imaging is most commonly used to measure the excess minority carrier density and its corresponding lifetime. By using appropriate surface treatments, this high-resolution imaging technique can also be used for majority carrier concentration determination. The mechanism involves effectively pinning the minority excess carrier density, resulting in a dependence of the photoluminescence intensity on only the majority carrier density. Three suitable surface preparation methods are introduced in this paper: aluminum sputtering, deionized water etching, and mechanical abrasion. Spatially resolved dopant density images determined using this technique are consistent with the images obtained by a well-established technique based on free carrier infrared emission. Three applications of the technique are also presented in this paper, which include imaging of oxygen-related thermal donors, radial dopant density analysis, and the study of donor-related recomb ination active defects. These applications demonstrate the usefulness of the technique in characterizing silicon materials for photovoltaics.

The nanostructured surface – also called black silicon (b-Si) – is a promising texture for solar cells because of its extremely low reflectance combined with low surface recombination obtained with atomic layer deposited (ALD) thin films. However, the challenges in keeping the excellent optical properties and passivation in further processing have not been addressed before. Here we study especially the applicability of the ALD passivation on highly boron doped emitters that is present in crystalline silicon solar cells. The results show that the nanostructured boron emitters can be passivated efficiently using ALD Al2O3 reaching emitter saturation current densities as low as 51 fA/cm2. Furthermore, reflectance values less than 0.5% after processing show that the different process steps are not detrimental for the low reflectance of b-Si.

Broad range injection-dependent carrier lifetime measurements in crystalline silicon are most relevant for both defect level spectroscopy, and for the investigation of recombination properties of novel solar cell technologies. The approach presented in this paper combines a determination of the effective carrier lifetime via time-dependent (quasi-steady-state) photoluminescence with a steady-state photoluminescence lifetime scan over a broad range of excess carrier densities. Thereby, the power of a virtually artifact-free time-domain approach is combined with the high sensitivity of steady-state photoluminescence at extremely low injection conditions. Time-dependent fluctuations of dark photocurrent measurements are identified as the essential source of uncertainty under such low injection. A measurement design which eliminates this source of uncertainty is presented and tested. Lifetime measurements at excess carrier densities as low as 10 8 cm −3 are shown in detail.

The passivation mechanisms and qualities of Al2O3, SiNx, SiO2 and a-Si:H( i ) on p - and n -type silicon are investigated by quasi-steady-state photoluminescence measurements. This technique allows effective lifetime measurements in an extremely large injection range between 1010 cm-3 and 1017 cm-3. The measurements are discussed focusing on injections below 1012 cm-3 in order to determine the most effective passivation layer for solar cells arranged for indoor applications. Fixed negative charges in the passivation layer cause field-effect passivation due to band bending leading to either accumulation or inversion at the passivation layer/silicon interface. Accumulation causes a stable passivation quality at low level injection. Inversion leads to effective lifetime losses similar to the losses in the space charge region. On p -type silicon the most effective surface passivation at low injections is provided by Al2O3 or a-Si:H( i ). The n -type silicon samples passivated with a-Si:H( i ) show the best effective lifetimes. SiNx and SiO2 show lifetimes one order of magnitude below a-Si:H( i ). Al2O3 on n -type is the most effective passivation at high injections around 1015 cm-3. Due to inversion losses at low level injections the passivation quality decreases more than two orders of magnitude for injections around 1010 cm-3.

An accurate quantitative description of the Auger recombination rate in silicon as a function of the dopant density and the carrier injection level is important to understand the physics of this fundamental mechanism and to predict the physical limits to the performance of silicon based devices. Technological progress has permitted a near suppression of competing recombination mechanisms, both in the bulk of the silicon crystal and at the surfaces. This, coupled with advanced characterization techniques, has led to an improved determination of the Auger recombination rate, which is lower than previously thought. In this contribution we present a systematic study of the injection-dependent carrier recombination for a broad range of dopant concentrations of high-purity $n$-type and $p$-type silicon wafers passivated with state-of-the-art dielectric layers of aluminum oxide or silicon nitride. Based on these measurements, we develop a general parametrization for intrinsic recombination in crystalline silicon at 300 K consistent with the theory of Coulomb-enhanced Auger and radiative recombination. Based on this improved description we are able to analyze physical aspects of the Auger recombination mechanism such as the Coulomb enhancement.

In the last years photoluminescence (PL) imaging has become a standard characterization method for conventional silicon solar cells and wafers providing spatially resolved information for material characterization and process control. In this work, the method of the c oupled determination of d ark saturation c urrent and series r esistance (C-DCR) is evaluated on conventional silicon solar cells in terms of its accuracy, reliability and informative value based on a large number of conventional multicrystalline silicon solar cells. The statistical evaluation is based on a comparison of the series resistance mean values obtained from the C-DCR method with the global values obtained from the IV-characteristics within the standard cell testing. Furthermore, examples for its application are given and demonstrate that the minimum exposure time needed for the C-DCR method is short enough to allow an inline application of the method.

We studied the precipitation of chromium in multicrystalline silicon during the crystallization process and temperature treatments typical for solar cell processing. A model which was already successfully used for simulating heterogeneous precipitation of iron is transferred to chromium, allowing two-dimensional simulations of dissolved chromium and precipitate density. The observed accordance with spatially resolved measurements demonstrates the similarity of chromium to iron precipitation and the ability of our model to predict the dissolved chromium concentration in multicrystalline silicon. After the crystallization process, a high impact of chromium on the carrier lifetime of wafers originating from an ingot intentionally contaminated with 20 ppma chromium in the melt was observed. The concentration of dissolved chromium was significantly reduced by phosphorus diffusion gettering or oxidation at 815°C. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

During the production of silicon solar cells crack detection systems can help to sort out damaged wafers and reduce wafer breakage before they enter the production line. In order to be cost effective, the crack detection system needs to minimize false detections as much as possible. False detections in crack detection systems occur when bad wafers are not detected or when good wafers are falsely detected as bad. The first error leads to an increase in cell breakage, the second error raises cell costs because non-damaged wafers are sorted out prior to cell processing. In this work a model has been developed to calculate the maximum allowable error rates of crack detection systems in order to achieve a cost per wafer benefit. Therefore a breakage rate dependent throughput calculation, based on manufacturing data, has been implemented. A sensitivity analysis shows that avoiding a high sorting out rate is crucial to favor the implementation of a crack detection system.

We present a qualitative method for series resistance imaging that generates lateral current flow in solar cells without electrical contacting. The applicability of the method is demonstrated on a multicrystalline silicon solar cell, and the results are briefly discussed with respect to lifetime artifacts and injection dependence of the series resistance distribution. The method overcomes one of the major drawbacks of state-of-the-art series resistance imaging methods, which require electrical contacting for current injection or extraction. It allows for all-contactless measurements, reduces the cell breakage rate, and simplifies the measurement setup and sample handling.

The preparation of ultra-thin oxide layers on mono-crystalline silicon substrate surfaces with ozone dissolved in ultra pure water at ambient temperature was investigated as a low cost alternative to current wet-chemical cleaning and passivation processes in solar cell manufacturing. Surface photovoltage technique was applied as fast, nondestructive, and surface sensitive method, to provide detailed information about the influence of oxidation rate and substrate surface morphology on electronic properties of the oxidised silicon interfaces and subsequently prepared hydrogen terminated surfaces. Sequences of wet-chemical oxidation in ozone containing ultra pure water and subsequent oxide removal in diluted hydrofluoric acid solution could be utilised to prepare hydrophobic substrates, which are predominantly required as starting point for layer deposition and contact formation. On so prepared hydrogen-terminated substrates values of interface state densities D it,min ≈ 5 × 10 11 eV −1 cm −2 could be achieved, comparable to values obtained on the same substrates by the standard RCA process followed by HF dip.

Micro-Raman (μRS) and micro-photoluminescence spectroscopy (μPLS) are demonstrated as valuable characterization techniques for fundamental research on silicon as well as for technological issues in the photovoltaic production. We measure the quantitative carrier recombination lifetime and the doping density with submicron resolution by μPLS and μRS. μPLS utilizes the carrier diffusion from a point excitation source and μRS the hole density-dependent Fano resonances of the first order Raman peak. This is demonstrated on micro defects in multicrystalline silicon. In comparison with the stress measurement by μRS, these measurements reveal the influence of stress on the recombination activity of metal precipitates. This can be attributed to the strong stress dependence of the carrier mobility (piezoresistance) of silicon. With the aim of evaluating technological process steps, Fano resonances in μRS measurements are analyzed for the determination of the doping density and the carrier lifetime in selective emitters, laser fired doping structures, and back surface fields, while μPLS can show the micron-sized damage induced by the respective processes.

Summary The impact on solar cell performance of transition metals like iron, chromium, nickel, titanium and co pper is the topic of this extended abstract. Each impurity has been intentionally added to silicon feedstock used to gr ow p-type directionally solidified multicrystalline silicon i ngots. A state of the art screen print solar cell process ha s been applied to wafers cut from the bottom to the top of these ingots. Adding 50 ppmwt of iron or 40 ppmwt of nickel or chromium to silicon feedstock, results in comparabl e solar cell performances to reference uncontaminated material in the range 40% to 70% of the ingot height. Addition of 10 ppmwt of titanium dramatically reduces the efficien cy along the entire ingot. Impurities like iron, chromium an d titanium cause a reduction in the diffusion length. Nickel d oes not reduce the diffusion length. On the other hand affe cts strongly the emitter recombination reducing the sol ar cell performance significantly. Copper has the peculiari ty to impact both bulk recombination as well as emitter recombination. A model based on Scheil distribution of impurity ha s been derived to fit the degradation along the ingot. So lar cell performance has been modeled as function of base bulk recombination and emitter recombination. The model fits very well the experimental data and has been also successfully validated. Unexpectedly, the Scheil di stribution of impurity along the ingot leaves its finger-print also at the end of the solar cell process. A measure of impurit y impact has been defined as the level of impurity which cau ses a degradation of less than 2% up to 90% of the ingot height. The advantage of this parameter is that comprises t he different impurities physical characters in one sin gle parameter, easy to compare.

Minority carrier lifetime is the most crucial material parameter for the performance of a silicon solar cell. While numerous methods exist to determine carrier lifetime on solar cell precursors prior to metallization, only very few techniques are capable of implicitly extracting effective minority carrier lifetimes from metallized silicon samples. In this paper, a measurement technique for effective minority carrier lifetime on silicon solar cells and metallized cell precursors via quasi-steady-state photoluminescence is presented. The setup requirements for this measurement technique are elaborated, experimental evidence of the reliability of such measurements down to carrier lifetimes in the range of a microsecond is provided, and a lifetime calibration of spatially resolved photoluminescence images of solar cells via the presented measurement technique is sketched. Finally, the very good agreement between the obtained effective carrier lifetime and the corresponding open circuit voltage of a solar cell is demonstrated.

Photoluminescence Imaging has been proven to be very useful for the characterization of silicon material characterization. By detecting emitted photons from the band-to-band recombination with a CCD camera information about the excess carrier density is gained. Besides carrier lifetime spatially resolved concentration measurements of the most prominent metallic impurities, namely interstitial iron and chromium, can be obtained in boron doped silicon. These measurements are based on a careful preparation of different metastable chemical states of the species under test by appropriate temperature and illumination conditions. Interstitial chromium as well as iron may reversibly bind to boron which changes their electrical defect parameters and thus the injection dependent carrier lifetime. From PL-images in both states the specific quantitative point defect concentration can be extracted. An analysis of the depth dependent carrier profiles gives an estimation on systematic errors, ideal measurement conditions, and a correction procedure for non-ideal measurement conditions. This contribution summarizes the state-of-the-art of impurity imaging methods with PL and introduces new aspects on quantitative PL-analysis of silicon material. A possible impact of lateral carrier diffusion on measurement errors is discussed by simulations of the carrier density distribution around extended defects. We present spatially resolved PL-measurements of the BO-defect concentration which expand the analysis of specific impurities. Being the most prominent factor which limits the carrier lifetime in Czochralski silicon this defect proves to significantly reduce material quality in multicrystalline silicon, too. For the separation of the impact of different metastable species present in the same sample a sequence of conditioning steps and measurements is proposed. Combining all techniques on the detection of metastable defects the quantitative impact of the specific detected impurity concentrations on the electrical material quality is deduced and can be tracked during solar cell processing resulting in a comprehensive analysis of efficiency-limiting defects in silicon.

Comparison of the open-circuit voltage (external voltage V(oc,ext)) determined by Suns-V(oc) measurements with the implied voltage V(oc, impl) determined by transient photoconductance decay lifetime measurements can yield a quick and easy analysis of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, especially in regard to finding the optimum doping concentration of the emitter layer [or back surface field (BSF)]. A sufficiently high doping concentration of the emitter and BSF is mandatory to extract the internal Fermi-level splitting and thus the internal voltage, at the solar cell contacts. However increasing the concentration of doping gases during the deposition of doped amorphous silicon layers results in a reduction of the interface passivation quality and Voc, impl. The best trade off is realized when the ratio of V(oc,ext) to V(oc,impl) (external/internal V(oc)-ratio zeta) reaches a saturation value near 1 upon increasing the doping concentration. AFORS-HET (Automat FOR Simulation of HETerostructures) simulations resulted in the conclusion that the characteristics of the external/internal Voc-ratio are mainly determined by the active doping concentration (doping minus defect concentration).

The knowledge of the loss mechanisms in industrial back-contact back-junction (BC BJ) silicon solar cells and their dependence on geometrical and substrate parameters provides the opportunity to further increase the cell efficiency of this cell type. In the presented paper the influences of the different loss mechanisms on the cell parameters of BC BJ solar cells were analyzed. The basis of the simulations was an advanced 1-d model that regards the detrimental influences of intrinsic losses, optical losses, series resistance losses and recombination losses on the cell efficiency. In this context the main influence of electrical shading losses will be discussed in particular, due to the restrictions of the minimum base width as a result of industrial structuring processes. The predictions of the theoretical calculations will be compared with the measured cell parameters of BC BJ solar cells for various cell designs. In order to further improve the cell design the influences of geometrical parameters (pitch, base width) and substrate parameters (base resistivity) on the cell efficiency will be analyzed. The modeling data show that the optimum cell geometry defines a balance between series resistance and electrical shading losses.

In this paper, we present a method to quickly evaluate the long-term effects of copper-containing metal stack systems for silicon solar cell front–side metallization. Copper diffusion, which is detrimental for the solar cell performance, is accelerated by exposing the cell to thermal stress. In this paper, we suggest to quantify the degree of copper diffusion into the cell by the very fast Suns-VOC technique, measuring the pseudo fill factor pFF. Using three or more different temperatures, and assuming a certain loss in pFF corresponds to a certain depth of diffusion, the effective activation energy for copper diffusion for a given system can be extracted from an Arrhenius plot of the measured data. An extrapolation into temperature regions typical for solar cell modules under outdoor conditions allows an estimation of the fill factor loss for any operation time and temperature. Compared to time- and cost-intensive methods such as transmission electron microscopy or secondary-ion mass spectrometry, this kind of investigation requires only sparse equipment and can typically be done in 1 week per stack system. © 2010 The Electrochemical Society. DOI: 10.1149/1.3466984 All rights reserved.

Ultrathin (7 nm) atomic layer deposited Al2O3 layers and high-deposition-rate plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited AlOx layers have been applied and characterized as rear-surface passivation for high-efficiency silicon solar cells. The excellent efficiency values (up to 21.3%-21.5%) demonstrate that both aluminum oxide deposition processes have a very high potential comparable to the reference cells with SiO2 passivation. The high voltages (similar to 680 mV), the excellent long-wavelength quantum efficiency, and the high short-circuit currents of these cells (similar to 40 mA/cm(2)) are a proof for the low rear-surface recombination velocity and excellent internal rear-surface reflection.

The electrical breakdown of silicon solar cells at low reverse currents has recently gained increased attention. In this study we investigate the physical properties of prebreakdown sites with high resolution spectroscopy techniques. These techniques comprise the measurement of the electroluminescence under reverse voltage, microphotoluminescence spectroscopy, and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The measurements show very high levels of stress at the prebreakdown sites, an increase in the breakdown size with applied reverse bias and redshift in the breakdown electroluminescence spectrum with increasing onset voltage. The results are tentatively explained by a lower bandgap energy at the breakdown sites, which could be caused by stress.

Aluminum oxide layers can provide excellent passivation for lowly and highly doped p-type silicon surfaces. Fixed negative charges induce an accumulation layer at the p-type silicon interface, resulting in very effective field-effect passivation. This paper presents highly negatively charged (Q(ox)=-2.1 X 10(12) cm(-2)) aluminum oxide layers produced using an inline plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system, leading to very low effective recombination velocities (similar to 10 cm s(-1)) on low-resistivity p-type substrates. A minimum static deposition rate (100 nm min(-1)) at least one order of magnitude higher than atomic layer deposition was achieved on a large carrier surfaces (similar to 1 m(2)) without significantly reducing the resultant passivation quality.

Minority carrier mobility is a crucial transport property affecting the performance of semiconductor devices such as solar cells. Compensation of dopant species and novel multicrystalline materials call for accurate knowledge of minority carrier mobility for device simulation and characterization. Yet, measurement techniques of minority carrier mobility are scarce, and published data scatter significantly even on monocrystalline material. In this paper, the determination of minority carrier mobility from self-consistent quasi-steady-state photoluminescence measurements of effective carrier lifetime is presented. The measurement design is distinguished by a limitation of carrier recombination through minority carrier transport—with excess carrier generation and recombination confined to opposite interfaces, respectively. Minority carrier mobility is inferred from the minority carrier diffusion coefficient via the Einstein relation. An experimental proof of concept on monocrystalline p-type material is provided, showing good agreement with state-of-the-art data and models. Considerations for the applicability of the method to compensated and multicrystalline silicon materials are discussed.

Knowledge of the carrier mobility in silicon is of utmost importance for photovoltaic applications, as it directly influences the diffusion length and thereby the cell efficiency. Moreover, its value is needed for a correct quantitative evaluation of a variety of lifetime measurements. However, models that describe the carrier mobility in silicon are based on theoretical calculations or fits to experimental data in monocrystalline silicon. Multicrystalline (mc) silicon features crystal defects such as dislocations and grain boundaries, with the latter possibly leading to potential barriers through the trapping of charge carriers and thereby influencing the mobility, as shown, for example, by Maruska [Appl. Phys. Lett. 36, 381 (1980)]. To quantify the mobilities in multicrystalline silicon, we performed Hall measurements in p-type mc-Si samples of various resistivities and different crystal structures and compared the data to majority carrier Hall mobilities in p-type mo nocrystalline floatzone (FZ) silicon. For lack of a model that provides reliable values of the Hall mobility in silicon, an empirical fit similar to existing models for conductivity mobilities is proposed based on Hall measurements of monocrystalline p-type FZ silicon. By comparing the measured Hall mobilities obtained from mc silicon with the corresponding Hall mobilities in monocrystalline silicon of the same resistivity, we found that the mobility reduction due to the presence of crystal defects in mc-Si ranges between 0 and 5 only. Mobility decreases of up to 30 as reported by Peter [Proceedings of the 23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, Valencia, Spain, 1-5 September 2008], or even of a factor of 2 to 3 as detected by Palais [Mater. Sci. Eng. B 102, 184 (2003)], in multicrystalline silicon were not observed.

In this study we present an advanced method for precise modeling of highly aluminum-doped p+ silicon, leading to excellent agreement of numerical and experimental data within a broad range. We analyze the influence of different recombination mechanisms on the saturation current densities of Al-doped Si surfaces for different Al profiles. Lateral doping inhomogeneities and the effect of incomplete ionization have been examined in detail. We demonstrate that incomplete ionization affects the profile characteristics significantly and, therefore, has to be accounted for in accurate modeling of highly Al-doped silicon.

Extensive investigations on industrial multicrystalline silicon solar cells have shown that, for standard 1 Omega cm material, acid-etched texturization, and in absence of strong ohmic shunts, there are three different types of breakdown appearing in different reverse bias ranges. Between -4 and -9 V there is early breakdown (type 1), which is due to Al contamination of the surface. Between -9 and -13 V defect-induced breakdown (type 2) dominates, which is due to metal-containing precipitates lying within recombination-active grain boundaries. Beyond -13 V we may find in addition avalanche breakdown (type 3) at etch pits, which is characterized by a steep slope of the I-V characteristic, avalanche carrier multiplication by impact ionization, and a negative temperature coefficient of the reverse current. If instead of acid-etching alkaline-etching is used, all these breakdown classes also appear, but their onset voltage is enlarged by several volts. Also for cells made from upgraded metallurgical grade material these classes can be distinguished. However, due to the higher net doping concentration of this material, their onset voltage is considerably reduced here. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3562200]

Excellent surface passivation of crystalline silicon (c-Si) is desired for a number of c-Si based applications ranging from microelectronics to photovoltaics. A plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition double layer of amorphous silicon-rich oxynitride and amorphous silicon nitride (SiN x) can provide a nearly perfect passivation after subsequent rapid thermal process (RTP) and light soaking. The resulting effective minority carriers' lifetime (eff) is close to the modeled maximum on p-type as well as on n-type c-Si. Restrictions on the RTP of passivated surfaces, typical of other common passivation schemes (e.g., amorphous Si), are relieved by this double layer. Harsher thermal treatments can be adopted while still obtaining salient passivation. Furthermore, characterization of the same, such as, surface photovoltage, capacitance voltage, and electron paramagnetic resonance, enables the reproducibility and the understanding of the passivation scheme under test. It is s hown that the strong quality of surface passivation is ensured by a mechanism that emits electrons from shallow donor states in the passivation layer system and therefore creates a positive field effect.

Seed-assisted growth of multicrystalline (mc) silicon ingots has led to a significant increase in mc silicon material quality (so called high performance multicrystalline silicon, “HPM Si”) and thus efficiencies of p-type mc silicon solar cells in the past years. Additionally, recent research revealed a high efficiency potential of n-type standard mc silicon due to its large tolerance to many metallic impurities. This suggests a high potential of n-type high performance mc silicon with a low density of dislocation clusters. In this study, the efficiency potential of p- and n-type high performance mc silicon, produced under identical conditions in the same laboratory crystallization furnace, is investigated after different high efficiency solar cell processing steps. The prediction of solar cell efficiencies by an “Efficiency limiting bulk recombination analysis” (ELBA) discloses a very high potential with material related losses of less than 1% abs. compared to the cell limit. In combination witha high efficiency cell concept featuring a full area passivated rear contact (TOPCon), efficiencies exceeding 20% on isotextured n-type HPM samples and close to 22% on samples with an improved texture are predicted. To support these predictions with results on actual devices, solar cells were fabricated. First results on cell level indicate high V oc and J sc values in the range predicted by ELBA simulations and an efficiency of 19.3%.

Significant improvements in the experimental setup of Micro-Raman (μRS) and Micro-Photoluminescence-Spectroscopy (μPL) for solar cell characterization are reported. The lateral resolution of doping density mapping with μRS is improved to below 200 nm. A highly resolved measurement on an aluminum BSF demonstrates the increase in resolution. Furthermore, the characterization of thin silicon layers within the same experimental setup is presented. An excitation source with low penetration depth is used to screen out background signal from the substrate. Finally, a surface topography mapping technique is implemented to extend μRS and μPL to uneven surfaces. With this extension micro cracks in conventionally textured silicon solar cells could be successfully characterized.