Reactive silver ink as front contacts for high efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells

April M. Jeffries, Avinash Mamidanna, Laura Ding, Owen Hildreth, Mariana Bertoni

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Low-resistance Ohmic contacts formed at low temperatures expand photovoltaic device opportunities to include thermally sensitive layers while reducing thermal budget during fabrication. Silicon heterojunction solar cells cannot be processed over ∼200°C because of temperature-induced degradation of surface passivation provided by hydrogenated amorphous silicon. Efficiencies of these cells are limited by high series resistance, which primarily arises from the use of relatively high-resistivity silver paste contacts that are formed at low-temperature. We report the formation of highly conductive contacts by drop-on-demand printing of reactive silver inks at low temperatures between 50 and 110°C, resulting in resistivities approaching that of bulk silver. Reactive silver ink printed as a front grid on a silicon heterojunction solar cell resulted in a cell series resistance of 1.8Ω cm2 compared to 1.1Ω cm2 for a cell screen printed with low-temperature silver paste. These results show that, before optimization, reactive silver ink contacts perform comparably to pastes that have been custom developed and commercialized for this specific application.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2016
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1984-1988
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781509027248
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 18 2016
Event43rd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2016 - Portland, United States
Duration: Jun 5 2016Jun 10 2016

Publication series

NameConference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
Volume2016-November
ISSN (Print)0160-8371

Other

Other43rd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPortland
Period6/5/166/10/16

Keywords

  • contacts
  • drop-on-demand printing
  • metallization
  • silver

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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