Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of n-Si IBC Solar Cells Using PERC Technology

Abstract

In this article, high-efficiency n-Si interdigitated back contact solar cells (IBC) were fabricated with the perc-like process. The cell was demonstrated with the efficiency of 22.16% (cell area = 10 x 10 cm), open-circuit voltage of 685 mV, short-circuit current density of 41.21 mA/cm(2), and fill factor of 78.48%. The low fill factor can be attributed to the high base recombination taking place under high-level injection. Fill factor over 81% and, therefore, cell efficiency over 23% is expected when wafers of high bulk lifetime (tau(bulk) >= 10 ms) or low resistivity (rho <= 1 omega center dot cm) are used. The light I-V curve was fully characterized with the optical and electronic properties obtained from independent measurements.