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

David L. Young; William Nemeth; Sachit Grover; Andrew Norman; Hao Chih Yuan; Benjamin G. Lee; Vincenzo Lasalvia; Paul Stradins

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2014.08.053

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

David L. Young, William Nemeth, Sachit Grover, Andrew Norman, Hao Chih Yuan, Benjamin G. Lee, Vincenzo Lasalvia, Paul Stradins

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

28 Scopus Citations

Abstract

We describe the design, fabrication and results of passivated contacts to n-type silicon utilizing thin SiO₂ and transparent conducting oxide layers. High temperature silicon dioxide is grown on both surfaces of an n-type wafer to a thickness <50 A, 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 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 of the contact (J_0,contact) and the specific contact resistivity (ρ_contact) using a TLM pattern. The best ITO/SiO₂ passivated contact in this study has J_0,contact = 92.5 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 ρcontact compared to the best reported passivated contacts.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	733-740
Number of pages	8
Journal	Energy Procedia
Volume	55
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014.08.053 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014.08.053
State	Published - 2014
Event	4th International Conference on Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaics, SiliconPV 2014 - Hertogenbosch, Netherlands Duration: 25 Mar 2014 → 27 Mar 2014

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

NREL Publication Number

NREL/JA-5J00-61658

Keywords

ITO
Passivated contacts
Silicon solar cells
SiO

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title = "Carrier Selective, Passivated Contacts for High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells based on Transparent Conducting Oxides",

abstract = "We describe the design, fabrication and results of passivated contacts to n-type silicon utilizing thin SiO2 and transparent conducting oxide layers. High temperature silicon dioxide is grown on both surfaces of an n-type wafer to a thickness <50 A, 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 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 of the contact (J0,contact) and the specific contact resistivity (ρcontact) using a TLM pattern. The best ITO/SiO2 passivated contact in this study has J0,contact = 92.5 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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author = "Young, {David L.} and William Nemeth and Sachit Grover and Andrew Norman and Yuan, {Hao Chih} and Lee, {Benjamin G.} and Vincenzo Lasalvia and Paul Stradins",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.; 4th International Conference on Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaics, SiliconPV 2014 ; Conference date: 25-03-2014 Through 27-03-2014",

year = "2014",

doi = "10.1016/j.egypro.2014.08.053",

language = "American English",

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AU - Young, David L.

AU - Nemeth, William

AU - Grover, Sachit

AU - Norman, Andrew

AU - Yuan, Hao Chih

AU - Lee, Benjamin G.

AU - Lasalvia, Vincenzo

AU - Stradins, Paul

PY - 2014

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N2 - We describe the design, fabrication and results of passivated contacts to n-type silicon utilizing thin SiO2 and transparent conducting oxide layers. High temperature silicon dioxide is grown on both surfaces of an n-type wafer to a thickness <50 A, 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 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 of the contact (J0,contact) and the specific contact resistivity (ρcontact) using a TLM pattern. The best ITO/SiO2 passivated contact in this study has J0,contact = 92.5 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.

AB - We describe the design, fabrication and results of passivated contacts to n-type silicon utilizing thin SiO2 and transparent conducting oxide layers. High temperature silicon dioxide is grown on both surfaces of an n-type wafer to a thickness <50 A, 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 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 of the contact (J0,contact) and the specific contact resistivity (ρcontact) using a TLM pattern. The best ITO/SiO2 passivated contact in this study has J0,contact = 92.5 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.

KW - ITO

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KW - SiO

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Y2 - 25 March 2014 through 27 March 2014

ER -

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

Abstract

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Keywords

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