Carrier-Selective, Passivated Contacts for High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells Based on Transparent Conducting Oxides

David L. Young; William Nemeth; Sachit Grover; Andrew Norman; Benjamin G. Lee; Paul Stradins

doi:10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925147

Carrier-Selective, Passivated Contacts for High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells Based on Transparent Conducting Oxides

David L. Young, William Nemeth, Sachit Grover, Andrew Norman, Benjamin G. Lee, Paul Stradins

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

35 Scopus Citations

Abstract

We describe the design, fabrication and results of passivated contacts to n-type silicon utilizing thin SiO₂ and indium tin oxide. High-temperature silicon dioxide is grown on both surfaces on an n-type Si wafer to a thickness <50 Å, followed by deposition of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) and a patterned metal contacting layer. As deposited, the thin-film stack has a very high recombination parameter, J_0,contact, and a non-ohmic, high contact resistance. However, after a forming gas anneal, the passivation quality and the contact resistivity improve significantly. The contacts are characterized by measuring the recombination parameter current density of the contact (J_0,contact) and the specific contact resistivity (ρ_contact) using a transmission line method (TLM) pattern. The best ITO/SiO₂ passivated contact in this study has J_0,contact = 93.5 fA/cm² and ρ_contact = 11.5 mOhm-cm². These values are placed in context with other passivating contacts using an analysis that determines the ultimate efficiency and the optimal area fraction for contacts for a given set of (J_0,contact, ρ_contact) values. The ITO/SiO₂ contacts are found to have a higher J_0,contact, but a similar ρ_contact compared to the best reported passivated contacts.

Original language	American English
Pages	1-5A
Number of pages	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925147 https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925147
State	Published - 15 Oct 2014
Event	40th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014 - Denver, United States Duration: 8 Jun 2014 → 13 Jun 2014

Conference

Conference	40th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014
Country/Territory	United States
City	Denver
Period	8/06/14 → 13/06/14

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.

NREL Publication Number

NREL/CP-5J00-62059

Keywords

ITO
passivated contacts
silicon
SiO
solar cells

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Young, D. L., Nemeth, W., Grover, S., Norman, A., Lee, B. G., & Stradins, P. (2014). Carrier-Selective, Passivated Contacts for High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells Based on Transparent Conducting Oxides. 1-5A. Paper presented at 40th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014, Denver, United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925147, https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925147

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abstract = "We describe the design, fabrication and results of passivated contacts to n-type silicon utilizing thin SiO2 and indium tin oxide. High-temperature silicon dioxide is grown on both surfaces on an n-type Si wafer to a thickness <50 {\AA}, followed by deposition of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) and a patterned metal contacting layer. As deposited, the thin-film stack has a very high recombination parameter, J0,contact, and a non-ohmic, high contact resistance. However, after a forming gas anneal, the passivation quality and the contact resistivity improve significantly. The contacts are characterized by measuring the recombination parameter current density of the contact (J0,contact) and the specific contact resistivity (ρcontact) using a transmission line method (TLM) pattern. The best ITO/SiO2 passivated contact in this study has J0,contact = 93.5 fA/cm2 and ρcontact = 11.5 mOhm-cm2. These values are placed in context with other passivating contacts using an analysis that determines the ultimate efficiency and the optimal area fraction for contacts for a given set of (J0,contact, ρcontact) values. The ITO/SiO2 contacts are found to have a higher J0,contact, but a similar ρcontact compared to the best reported passivated contacts.",

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Young, DL , Nemeth, W, Grover, S, Norman, A, Lee, BG & Stradins, P 2014, 'Carrier-Selective, Passivated Contacts for High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells Based on Transparent Conducting Oxides', Paper presented at 40th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2014, Denver, United States, 8/06/14 - 13/06/14 pp. 1-5A. https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925147, https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925147

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AU - Young, David L.

AU - Nemeth, William

AU - Grover, Sachit

AU - Norman, Andrew

AU - Lee, Benjamin G.

AU - Stradins, Paul

PY - 2014/10/15

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AB - We describe the design, fabrication and results of passivated contacts to n-type silicon utilizing thin SiO2 and indium tin oxide. High-temperature silicon dioxide is grown on both surfaces on an n-type Si wafer to a thickness <50 Å, followed by deposition of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) and a patterned metal contacting layer. As deposited, the thin-film stack has a very high recombination parameter, J0,contact, and a non-ohmic, high contact resistance. However, after a forming gas anneal, the passivation quality and the contact resistivity improve significantly. The contacts are characterized by measuring the recombination parameter current density of the contact (J0,contact) and the specific contact resistivity (ρcontact) using a transmission line method (TLM) pattern. The best ITO/SiO2 passivated contact in this study has J0,contact = 93.5 fA/cm2 and ρcontact = 11.5 mOhm-cm2. These values are placed in context with other passivating contacts using an analysis that determines the ultimate efficiency and the optimal area fraction for contacts for a given set of (J0,contact, ρcontact) values. The ITO/SiO2 contacts are found to have a higher J0,contact, but a similar ρcontact compared to the best reported passivated contacts.

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KW - passivated contacts

KW - silicon

KW - SiO

KW - solar cells

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Y2 - 8 June 2014 through 13 June 2014

ER -

Carrier-Selective, Passivated Contacts for High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells Based on Transparent Conducting Oxides

Abstract

Conference

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Keywords

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