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Chapter

Industrial Silicon Solar Cells

Mehul C. Raval and Sukumar Madugula Reddy

Abstract

The chapter will introduce industrial silicon solar cell manufacturing technolo-
gies with its current status. Commercial p-type and high efficiency n-type solar cell
structures will be discussed and compared so that the reader can get a head-start in
industrial solar cells. A brief over-view of various process steps from texturing to
screen-printed metallization is presented. Texturing processes for mono-crystalline
and multi-crystalline silicon wafers have been reviewed with the latest processes.
An over-view of the thermal processes of diffusion and anti-reflective coating
deposition has been presented. The well-established screen-printing process for
solar cell metallization is introduced with the fast-firing step for sintering of the
contacts. I-V testing of solar cells with various parameters for solar cell character-
ization is introduced. Latest developments in various processes and equipment
manufacturing are also discussed along with the expected future trends.

Keywords: silicon, solar cells, manufacturing, multi-crystalline,

mono-crystalline, texturing

1. Introduction

Photovoltaics are an important renewable energy source which has grown rap-
idly from 8 GW in 2007 to 400 GW in 2017 [1]. Along with the increasing demand,
the PV system costing has also dropped significantly from 35.7 $/Wp in 1980 to
0.34 $/Wp in 2017 accelerating its adoption [2]. Silicon (Si) which is an important
material of the microelectronics industry has also been the widely used bulk mate-
rial of solar cells since the 1950s with a market share of >90% [2]. The chapter will
introduce the typical steps for manufacturing commercial silicon solar cells. A brief
history of solar cells and over-view of the type of silicon substrates along with the
different solar cell architecture will be introduced in Sections 2 and 3. Subsequently,
the wet-chemistry and high temperature steps used in fabrication will be described
in Sections 4 and 5. Section 6 will discuss about the metallization process along
with typical characterization parameters for commercial solar cells. Finally, future
roadmap and expected trends will be discussed in the concluding section.

2. Evolution of solar cells

The ‘photovoltaic effect’ literally means generation of a voltage upon exposure

to light. The phenomenon was first observed by the French physicist Edmund
Becquerel on an electrochemical cell in 1839, while it was observed by British scien-
tists W.G. Adams and R.E. Day on a solid-state device made of selenium in 1876 [3].
From the 1950s onwards, there was rapid progress in the performance of commercial

1
Solar Cells

solar cells from <1% to >23% [2] and silicon has been the ‘work-horse’ of the pho-
tovoltaic industry since then. The evolution of silicon solar cells is shown in Figure 1.
The first silicon solar cells demonstrated by Russell Ohl of Bell Laboratories dur-
ing 1940s were based on natural junctions formed from impurity segregation during
the recrystallization process [3]. The cells had an efficiency of <1% due to lack of
control over the junction location and the quality of the silicon material. The nomen-
clature for naming the regions (p-type: side which is illumination and n-type: other
side) given by Ohl are since then being used for the solar cell naming conventions.
During the 1950s, there was rapid development in the high-temperature diffusion
process for dopants in silicon. Person, Fuller and Chaplin of Bell Laboratories demon-
strated a 4.5% efficient solar cell with lithium-based doping, which improved to 6%
with boron diffusion. The solar cell had a ‘wrap-up’ around structure (Figure 1(b))
with both contacts on back side to avoid shading losses, but led to higher resistive losses
due to the wrap-around structure. By 1960, the cell structure evolved to as shown in
Figure 1(c). Since the application was for space explorations, high resistivity substrate
of 10 Ω cm was used to have maximum radiation resistance. Vacuum evaporated
contacts were used on both sides, while a silicon monoxide coating was used as an anti-
reflective coating (ARC) on the front-side (FS) [3].
In early 1970s it was found that having sintered aluminum on the rear-side
improved the cell performance by forming a heavily doped interface known as
the ‘back-surface field (Al-BSF)’ and gettering of the impurities [3]. The Al-BSF
reduces recombination of the carriers on the rear-side and hence improves the volt-
age and the long-wavelength spectral response. Implementation of finer and closely

Figure 1.
Evolution of silicon solar cells. (a) 1941: Solar cell reported with grown-in junction, (b) 1954: Solar cell p-n
junction formed with dopant diffusion, (c) 1970: Violet cell with Aluminum back-surface field, (d) 1974: Black
cell with chemically textured surface [3].

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spaced fingers reduced the requirement on the junction doping and eliminated
the dead layer. An ARC of titanium dioxide (TiOx) was used and its thickness was
selected to reduce the reflection for shorter wavelengths and gave a violet appear-
ance to the solar cells. Further improvement was made by texturing the wafers
using anisotropic etching of (100) wafers to expose the (111) surfaces. The textur-
ing led to improved light-trapping and gave the cells a dark velvet appearance. The
improved cell architecture is shown in Figure 1(d). In 1976, Rittner and Arndt
demonstrated terrestrial solar cells with efficiencies approaching 17% [3].
The passivated emitter solar cell (PESC) achieved a milestone of 20% efficiency
in 1984–1986. The metal/silicon contact area was only 0.3% in PESC cells, while a
double layer ARC of ZnS/MgF2 was used in both cell structures. In 1994, passivated
emitter rear locally diffused (PERL) cell with an efficiency of 24% were demon-
strated [3]. As compared to the PESC cell, the PERL cell had inverted pyramids
on FS for better light-trapping and oxide-based passivation on both sides. Oxide
passivation layer on the rear-side also improved the internal reflectance of the long
wavelength and hence the spectrum response.
In addition to the evolving solar cell architectures, there has also been continu-
ous development in the manufacturing domain in terms of increased throughput,
improved process-steps and reduced costs. A brief over-view of the manufacturing
of Si substrates and various types of solar cells is given in the next section.

3. Commercial silicon solar cell technologies

Si is the second most abundant material on earth after oxygen and has been
widely used in the semiconductor industry. Metallurgical grade silicon (Mg-Si) of
98% purity is obtained by heating quartz (SiO2) with carbon at high temperatures
of 1,500-2,000 [4]. Mg-Si is further purified to obtain solar grade silicon chunks
of 99.99% purity. The refined solar grade Si chunks are then processed further to
obtain mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline forms of Si ingots, which are a large
mass of silicon. In mono-crystalline Si, the atoms are arranged in the same crystal
orientation throughout the material. For solar cells, (100) orientation is preferred
as it can be easily textured to reduce the surface reflection [5]. Multi-crystalline Si,
as the name suggest has multiple grains of Si material with different orientations,
unlike the mono-crystalline substrates. Mono-crystalline material have higher
minority carrier lifetime compared to multi-crystalline Si and hence higher solar
cell efficiencies for a given solar cell technology.
The Czochralski (Cz) method for making mono-crystalline Si ingots is illus-
trated in Figure 2(a). High purity molten silicon with dopant is maintained above
the melting point and then a seed crystal is pulled at a very slow rate to obtain an
ingot of as large as 300 mm in diameter and 2 m in length [6]. The molten silicon
can be doped with either p-type or n-type dopants to obtain the specific type of
mono-crystalline Si ingot of up to 200 kg [2]. Wafers sawn from the ingots have
circular edges and hence the shape is called a ‘psuedo square’. Multi-crystalline
silicon ingots are made by melting high purity Si and crystallizing them in a large
crucible by directional solidification process [7] as demonstrated in Figure 2(b).
The process does not have a reference crystal orientation like the Cz process and
hence forms silicon material of different orientations. Currently the multi-crystal-
line Si ingots weigh >800 kg [2] which are then cut into bricks and wafers are sawn
further. Current size of mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline wafers for solar cell
fabrication is 6 inch × 6 inch. The area of the mono-crystalline wafers will be little
less due to the pseudo-square shape. The most widely used base material for making
solar cells is boron doped p-type Si substrates. N-type Si substrates for also used

3
Solar Cells

for making high efficiency solar cells, but have additional technical challenges like
obtaining uniform doping along the ingot compared to p-type substrates.
A broad classification of different types of solar cells along with efficiency
ranges is shown in Figure 3. The standard aluminum back-surface field (Al-BSF)
technology is one of the most common solar cell technology given its relatively
simple manufacturing process. It is based on full rear-side (RS) Al deposition by
screen-printing process and formation of a p+ BSF which helps repel the electrons
from the rear-side of p-type substrate and improve the cell performance. The
manufacturing flow for Al-BSF solar cells is shown in Figure 4. The standard
design of commercial solar cells is with grid-pattern FS and full area RS contacts.
The passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) solar cell improves on the Al-BSF
architecture by addition of rear-side passivation layer to improve rear-side passivation
and internal reflection. Aluminum-oxide is a suitable material for RS passivation with
average solar cell efficiencies nearing 21% obtained in production [8]. An existing

Figure 2.
Illustration of (a) Cz process for mono-crystalline ingots and (b) directional solidification process for multi-
crystalline ingots.

Figure 3.
Broad classification of different types of solar cell.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84817

Figure 4.
Manufacturing flow of Al-BSF solar cells.

Al-BSF solar cell line can be upgraded to PERC process by two additional tools (RS
passivation layer deposition and laser for localized contact opening on the RS).
The remaining three cell architectures are mainly higher efficiency technologies
based on n-type Si substrates. The a-Si heterojunction solar cell has a-Si layers on the
FS and RS of n-type Si substrate to form ‘heterojunctions’ unlike the conventional
high temperature diffusion-based p-n junction. Such technology allows processing at
lower temperatures, but is very sensitive to the quality of the surface interfaces. a-Si-
based heterojunction solar cell was commercially manufactured by Sanyo Electric,
which is now taken over by Panasonic [9]. In the interdigitated back contact (IBC)
solar cell design, both contacts are present on the rear-side eliminating the FS contact
shading losses. Typically for IBC solar cells, the junction will also be located on the
rear-side. One of the early manufacturers of the high efficiency n-type IBC solar cell
is SunPower Corporation [10]. Bifacial cells, as the name suggests can capture light
from both sides of the solar cells. This entails that the rear-side also has a grid-pattern
contacts to enable light collection. An example of the bifacial technology is the
BiSON solar cell developed and commercialized by ISC, Konstanz [11]. It should be
noted that the indicated classification is not an exhaustive list of various other types
of solar cell architectures which are in R&D phase, close to commercialization or
already being manufactured. The subsequent sections will give an over-view of the
process steps for manufacturing of Al-BSF solar cells.

4. Wet-chemistry processes for solar cell fabrication

Wet-chemistry-based treatment is an important step in solar cell processing for

saw damage removal (SDR) for the as-cut wafers, texturing of the surface to increase
the absorption of incoming solar radiation and edge isolation after the diffusion
process. As discussed in the previous section, there are mainly mono-crystalline and
multi-crystalline silicon wafers used for fabrication of solar cells. The wet-chemistry-
based processing for the respective types of wafers will be discussed ahead.

4.1 Texturing of mono-crystalline silicon wafers

As indicated in Section 2, the development of solar cells started primarily with

mono-crystalline wafers and hence employed well-established methods from the
domain of microelectronics. Alkaline anisotropic etching based on KOH/NaOH

5
Solar Cells

is used for pyramidal texturing of mono-crystalline wafers. An as-cut mono-

crystalline wafer has a weighted average reflectance of >30% (over wavelength
of 300–1,200 nm) which reduces to 11–12% after the texturing process. Typical
morphology of an alkaline textured surface is shown in Figure 5. The anisotropic
etching solution etches the (100) surface of the wafers to expose the (111) faces
which have a higher density of silicon atoms and hence a slower etch rate compared
to the (100) faces. This results in formation of random pyramid structures which
form an angle of 54.7° with respect to the wafer surface.
Typical parameters for the alkaline texturing process are shown in Table 1. It should
be noted that the values of various parameters are indicative and are not to be taken
as absolute as there are a variety of additive manufacturers in the market. Isopropyl
alcohol (IPA) was initially used as an additive in the texturing solution, which is not
involved in the etching reaction, but acts as a wetting agent to improve the homogene-
ity of texturing process by preventing the H2 bubbles (generated during the reaction)
adhering to the silicon surface [12]. However by 2010, IPA was gradually replaced with
alternative additives due to drawbacks like unstable concentration as the bath tempera-
ture is close to the boiling point of IPA (82.4°C), high costs, high consumption, health
hazards and explosiveness [12]. Many groups have published development work to
replace IPA with alternate additives to overcome the disadvantages of IPA, increase the
process window and reduce the surface reflectance [12–16]. Additives also reduce the
processing time to <10 minutes and increases the bath life to >100 runs.
The texturing process of the mono-crystalline wafers is typically performed in a
‘batch’ which implies that the wafers are loaded in a carrier with slots to hold the wafers
(100 slots in a carrier) and then the batch is processed sequentially in baths for textur-
ing, cleaning, treatment steps to remove the organic residue and metal contamination
and drying the processed wafers. The carriers are typically coated with PVDF which
has very good resistance to various chemicals, abrasion and mechanical wear and tear.
Typical carrier for mono-crystalline wafers handling is shown in Figure 6. The batch
texturing tool has dedicated baths for each step with dosing tanks for chemicals used in
the bath. The tool processes many carriers simultaneously and can reach a throughput
of >6,000 wafers/h with processing of four carriers at the same time.

Figure 5.
Typical surface morphology of an alkaline textured mono-crystalline wafer.

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Process KOH/IPA KOH/additive

KOH (%) 3 <3

IPA (%) 6 —

Additive (%) — <2

Process temperature [°C] >80 70–100

Pyramid size [μm] 5–12 2–7

Process time [min] 30–40 5–10

Organic content [wt%] 4–10 <1.0

Boiling point [°C] 83 >100

Bath lifetimes <15 >100

Table 1.
Process parameters for IPA-based and additive-based alkaline texturing of mono-crystalline wafers.

Figure 6.
Carriers for loading wafers in the batch tool. Source: RCT solutions GmbH.

4.2 Texturing of multi-crystalline silicon wafers

Multi-crystalline wafers offer a cost advantage compared to the mono-crystalline

wafers and hence have been more widely adopted. However, the alkaline chemistry
used for texturing mono-crystalline wafers does not work well for multi-crystalline
wafers due to the presence of different grain orientations. An alternative acidic
chemistry based on HF and HNO3 was developed to remove the saw damage and tex-
ture the multi-crystalline wafers simultaneously [17, 18]. The acidic solution-based
texturing operates at temperatures below room temperature and hence leads to

7
Solar Cells

reduced reaction gas emission, little heat generation, higher stability of the etching
solution and better control of the etch rate [18]. A comparison of alkaline texturing
and acidic texturing process for multi-crystalline wafers is shown in Figure 7.
The acidic texturing process of multi-crystalline wafer can be done in signifi-
cantly reduced time compared to the alkaline texturing process and hence can be
implemented in an ‘inline’ configuration where the wafers are passed through rollers
immersed in the etching bath. A representative image of an inline process along with
the typical acidic texturing process is shown in Figure 8. For a five lane configura-
tion, the inline tool can have a throughput of up to 4,000 wafers/h. It is important
to note that the wafer surface facing down in the etching solution is textured better
than the top-side and is the ‘sunny-side’ for further processing. The acidic texturing
process leads to formation of porous silicon on the textured surface which absorbs
light and also increases the surface recombination [18]. Hence the porous silicon is
removed using a dilute alkaline solution. Subsequently, an acidic clean (HF + HCl) is
performed to remove oxides and metal contamination from the wafer surfaces.
It is important to note that the acidic texturing process discussed above is suit-
able for the slurry-wire sawn (SWS) multi-crystalline wafers. In the past few years,
diamond-wire sawing (DWS) process has replaced the slurry-wire-based cutting
due to process and economic advantages [19]. The saw damage of the SWS multi-
crystalline wafers is more than the DWS wafers, which have deep straight grooves
and a much more smoother surface than the slurry-wire sawn wafers [19]. The saw
damage for the SWS wafers plays an important role for initiating the texturing
process, which does not occur for the DWS wafers.
Various methods have been proposed to texture DWS multi-crystalline wafers and
are summarized in Table 2 [20]. By tuning the various methods, reflectance of close
to 0% can be obtained and hence the term ‘black silicon’ has been used for the textur-
ing process of DWS multi-crystalline wafers. RIE was the first method for making
black silicon and uses sulfur hexaflouride (SF6) to react with Si and gases like Cl2 and
O2 for passivating and limiting the reaction [20]. Recently, commercial multi PERC
solar cells with average efficiency of 21.3% have been demonstrated with RIE-based

Figure 7.
Comparison of alkaline and acidic texturing for multi-crystalline wafers. Reflectance curves after deposition of
SiNx:H are also showed for comparison [17].

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Figure 8.
(a) Representative inline process with five lanes and (b) acidic texturing process flow for multi-crystalline wafers.

Method Reagents Mask Catalyst Minimum

reflectance (%)

Reactive ion etching (RIE) SF6/O2, SF6/Cl2/O2, SF6/O2/CH4 None None 4.0
Plasma immersion ion SF6/O2 None None 1.8
implantation (PIII)

Laser irradiation CCl4, C2Cl3F3, SF6, Cl2, N2, air None None 2.5

Plasma etching SF6 Ag nano None 4.2

particles

Metal-assisted chemical AgNO3/HF/HNO3 None Ag, Au 0.3

etching (MACE)

Electrochemical etching HF, EtOH,H2O None None <5.0

Table 2.
Various methods for texturing diamond-wire sawn multi-crystalline wafers [20].

texturing process [21]. However, since RIE is a vacuum-based process the throughput
is low as compared to a typical inline process and also additional pre-processing and
post-processing is required to remove the saw damage and damage due to ion-bom-
bardment, respectively. A variant of the RIE method which does not require vacuum
or plasma has been implemented in a commercial tool [22].
One of the approaches for texturing DWS multi-crystalline wafers is to upgrade
the existing acidic texturing-based chemistry with additives [23–25]. Such an
approach can potentially have a lower CoO compared to the MACE-based approach
[23]. Reflectance of such an additive-based approach has been demonstrated to be
similar to the conventional isotexturing solution with solar cell efficiency of 18.7%
for the Al-BSF-based structure [24].
MACE-based texturing is similar to the conventional acidic etching method
with an additional step of catalytic metal deposition. The process flow consists of
SDR, catalyst metal deposition, chemical etching and post-treatment. Efficiencies
of 19.2% have been obtained for commercial multi Al-BSF cells using batch-type
MACE texturing process [26]. Inline-type MACE-based commercial tool has been
demonstrated with the possibility to tune the reflectance in the range of 12–23%
and obtain average efficiency for Al-BSF and PERC structure of 18.8 and 20.2%,
respectively [27]. Representative images of textured surface based on MACE
process are shown in Figure 9. The cost of ownership (CoO) of the inline MACE
process is potentially lower compared to the batch-based MACE process with scope
to reduce it further by recycling Ag from the texturing bath [27].

9
Solar Cells

Figure 9.
MACE textured DWS multi wafers, (a) surface with Ravg = 12% and (b) surface with Ravg = 22% [27].

4.3 Wet-chemistry-based edge isolation

The emitter region in a solar cell is fabricated by a high temperature diffusion

process (to be discussed in sections ahead). During the diffusion process, phosphor
silicate glass (PSG) is deposited on the wafer which should be removed before depo-
sition of the ARC layer. As depicted in Figure 10, after the diffusion step, the n-type
region is also present on the edges and the rear-side of the wafer. The n-type layer
on edges and the rear-side will short-circuit the emitter with the base substrate and
hence it is important to etch these regions and isolate the emitter on the FS from the
base substrate as depicted in Figure 10(c).
The edge isolation process can be performed in an inline manner similar to the
texturing process discussed in the previous section. The exception in this case is
that the chemical should etch only the rear-side and edges without interacting with
the FS. A representative image of the edge isolation process is shown in Figure 11. It
is important to note that the rollers are present only on the bottom-side to avoid any
contact of the etching solution with the front-side. The subsequent steps after the
RS etching are similar to those in the inline texturing machine.

Figure 10.
Processing of silicon wafer after diffusion and edge isolation (a) Textured silicon wafer, (b) Diffused silicon
wafer, (c) Diffused silicon wafer after edge-isolation.

Figure 11.
Representative image of solar cell in an inline edge-isolation bath.

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5. Thermal processes for solar cell fabrication

High temperature processes form a vital part of solar cell fabrication. Examples
of such processes are forming the p-n junction by diffusion, firing of screen-printed
contacts, activating surface passivation layers or annealing process induced defects.
The section glimpses the basic physics of emitter diffusion process and plasma
enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD).

5.1 Emitter diffusion

Emitter diffusion is one of the crucial thermal steps in the industrial solar
cell fabrication. The n-type emitter of the crystalline p-type silicon solar cells
is formed by phosphorus (P) diffusion. In the diffusion process, the Si wafers
are sent in a furnace and exposed at 800–900°C to phosphoryl chloride (POCl3)
and O2 which results in PSG deposition on the Si wafer surfaces. This step is
called as pre-deposition, where the PSG [28] acts as a source of phosphorus (P)
dopants to diffuse into the Si wafer. The next step is drive-in, where the supply
of dopant gases is disconnected and P from the PSG layer diffuses further into
the Si wafer. Hannes et al. [29] illustrates for the optimum process feasibility for
photovoltaic applications, three different effects have to be considered. Firstly,
the in-diffusion of P from the PSG and its presence in electrically active and
inactive states in the Si wafer, which increases Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recom-
bination. Secondly, the gettering of impurities into the Si layer towards the PSG
layer. Finally, the metal contact formation with the P-doped Si emitter draws out
the generated power.
The diffusion process is quantified by sheet resistance which depends on the
depth of p-n junction and P concentration profile. The sheet resistance has units
of Ω/cm (commonly measured as Ω/□) and is measured using a four-point probe
system. The definition of sheet resistance is illustrated in Eq. (1).

𝜌l 𝜌l ρ
R = __ = ______ = __ = ρ sheet (1)
A W∗D D

where R = resistance of a rectangular section (Ω); ρ = resistivity (Ω cm);

l = length of the rectangular section (cm); A = area of the rectangular section (cm2);
W = width of the rectangular section (cm); D = depth of the rectangular section
(cm) and ρsheet = resistance for given depth (D) when l = W (Ω/□).
The earlier values of emitter sheet resistance were 30–60 Ω/□ with p-n junction
depths of >400 nm and high P surface concentration. With improvements in the
front-side silver (Ag) contacting paste, the emitter sheet resistance is now in the
range of 90–110 Ω/□ with junction depth of around 300 nm and lower P surface
concentration. Shifting to larger sheet-resistance allows to capture more light in the
UV and blue spectrum, while also reducing the surface recombination to improve
the Voc. It should be noted that the diffusion process occurs on the FS (directly
exposed to the gases) and also on the edges and RS. If the edge isolation process
is not carried out (as discussed in Section 4.3), the emitter will be short-circuited
with the substrate.
Figure 12 shows the POCl3 diffusion process in a closed quartz-tube system.
POCl3 is a liquid source supplied to the process tube by bubbling it with a carrier
gas N2. By mixing O 2 with the POCl3, there will be an epitaxial growth of PSG layer
as indicated in Eq. (2) [30].

4POC l 3 + 3 O 2 → 2 P2 O 5(PSG) + 6 Cl 2 (2)

11
Solar Cells

At the Si surface, 2 P2 O 5 is reduced to elemental phosphorus during the drive-in

step as shown in Eq. (3) [30].

2 P2 O 5 + 5Si → 4P + 5Si O 2 (3)

Chlorine which is a by-product during the pre-deposition cleans the wafers and
quartz-tube by forming complexes with metals. PSG is used as source for driving
in the P atoms into Si surface. During the drive-in process, POCl3 is switched off
and only O2 is added to build up a thin oxide layer beneath the PSG to enhance the
diffusion of P atoms into Si surface.
Inside the diffusion tube there are five heating zones as illustrated in Figure 13.
The zones are:

• Loading zone (LZ)—area from where the wafers are loaded into the tube.

• Center loading zone (CLZ)—area between the loading zone and centre zone.

• Center zone (CZ)—center area of the tube.

• Center gas zone (CGZ)—area between the centre zone and gas zone.

• Gas zone (GZ)—area from where the gases move out through the exhaust.

Typically the temperatures of each heating zone are adjusted to obtain equal
emitter sheet resistance for all wafers across the boat.
Environment of diffusion process should be very clean and hence quartz mate-
rial is used for the tubes. Cleanliness of the tubes and loading-area maintenance also
affects the process results. Since in gas-phase diffusion there is no residue in the tube,
it results in a cleaner process. By half pitch loading in the low pressure (LP) condi-
tions [31], the throughput can be increased. Commonly 1,000 wafers are loaded in a
single tube and with five diffusion tubes in a batch-type diffusion system, a through-
put of up to 3,800 wafers/h can be achieved for solar cell manufacturing.

Figure 12.
(a) Schematic representation of the batch-type diffusion process and (b) representative image of a batch-type
diffusion equipment. Source: centrotherm GmbH.

Figure 13.
Heating zones inside the diffusion tube.

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An inline diffusion system where the wafers are transported on a belt with phos-
phoric acid as the source of P dopants was also used in commercial production [32].
However, compared to the inline process, the batch process is more clean, effective
and efficient. For n-type solar cells or advanced solar cells concepts like PERT, the
p-type batch diffusion is based on boron (B) dopant sources like boron tribromide
(BBr3) [33, 34].

5.2 Anti-reflective coating (ARC) deposition

A bare Si surface reflects >30% of the light incident. As discussed in Section

4, the texturing process improves the light-capturing. It is desirable to reduce the
reflectance further which is obtained by depositing an ARC layer. TiOx was one of
the earliest material to be used as an ARC layer for solar cells, however since it could
not provide adequate surface passivation it was eventually replaces by SiNx:H [37].
Thermally grown silicon oxide (SiO2) was also employed as the passivating material
in the record breaking passivated emitter rear locally diffused (PERL) cells [37].
High thermal budget and long process time made SiO2-based passivation unsuitable
for mass-production of solar cells [37]. A comprehensive review of various ARC
and passivating material for solar cell applications is discussed in [37].
The plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) process is suit-
able for depositing an ARC layer of SiNx:H which not only reduces the reflection
but also passivates the front-side n-type emitter and the bulk thus improving the
solar cell efficiency [36, 37]. A schematic of a batch-type PECVD system is shown
in Figure 14. The wafers are loaded in a graphite boat with the front-sides facing
each other. An RF plasma based on process gases ammonia (NH3) and silane (SiH4)
operating at a temperature of 400–450°C deposit the hydrogenated SiNx:H layer
as per Eq. (4) [35]. The hydrogen incorporated in the SiNx:H film diffuses into the
bulk during the firing step (discussed in next section) and passivates the dangling
bonds to improve the solar cell performance [36, 37].

3Si H 4 + 2N H 3 + N 2 → S i 3 N 4 + 9 H 2 (4)

The refractive index (RI) of the SiNx:H film is controlled by the ratio of SiH4/
NH3 gas, while the thickness depends on the deposition duration. The SiNx:H-based
ARC can minimize the reflection for a single wavelength and the wavelength-
thickness is given by [38],

λ
t = ___
0
(5)
4 n1

where t = thickness of the SiNx:H ARC layer, λ0 = wavelength of incoming light

and n1 = refractive index of the SiNx:H layer.
Based on the relationship, the ARC is also called as a ‘quarter wavelength ARC’.
For solar cells, the RI and thickness are selected to minimize the reflection at a
wavelength of 600 nm as it is the peak of the solar spectrum. The thickness and
RI of the ARC is selected to be the geometric mean of materials on either side, i.e.,
glass/air and Si. The typical thickness of the SiNx:H ARC is 80–85 nm with RI of
2.0–2.1 giving the solar cell a color of blue to violet blue. A representative image of
textured multi-crystalline solar cell deposited with SiNx:H is shown in Figure 15(a),
while the variation of SiNx:H color based on its thickness is shown in Figure 15(b).
It is important to note that there is a dependence on the surface texture and ARC
color for given deposition parameters. There is a variety of solar modules where
the color of the solar cells is darker unlike the typical blue color. A typical ARC

13
Solar Cells

Figure 14.
(a) Schematic diagram of batch-type PECVD process for SiNx:H deposition and (b) graphite boat for loading
Si wafers in the PECVD furnace.

Figure 15.
(a) Representative image of SiNx:H coated multi-crystalline solar cell, (b) variation of SiNx:H layer based on
its thickness.

deposition stage in a solar cell manufacturing line consists of two PECVD systems,
each with four tubes and a throughput of up to 3,500 wafers/h.
SiNx:H is not suitable for passivating p-type Si and hence dielectrics like Al2O3
are used for RS passivation for cell architecture like PERC cells [8] or for p-type
emitters in n-type solar cells. For PERC solar cells, the Al2O3 passivating layer is
capped by a SiNx:H to protect it from the Al-paste during the firing process and also
serve as an internal reflector for the long wavelength light. Commercial PECVD
and atomic layer deposition (ALD)-based systems are available for depositing Al2O3
with throughput of up to 4,800 wafers/h [39].

6. Metallization and solar cell characterization

6.1 Screen-printing-based metallization

The last processing step for solar cell fabrication is the FS and RS metallization
to draw out the power with minimum resistive losses. Ag is a good contact mate-
rial for the n-type emitter, while Al makes a very good contact with the p-type
substrate. A combination of Ag/Al paste is used to print pads on the RS to facilitate
interconnection of solar cells in a module. Screen-printing is a simple, fast and
continuously evolving process for solar cell metallization.
A schematic representation of the screen-printing process is shown in
Figure 16. The screens have an emulsion coated stainless steel mesh with open-
ings as per the desired metallization pattern as illustrated in Figure 17(a).

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Figure 16.
Illustration of the screen-printing process for solar cell metallization.

Figure 17.
(a) Mesh-emulsion screen with finger opening for FS Ag printing [40] and (b) representative FS metallization
pattern.

The metal paste is spread over the screen via the flood and the squeegee move-
ment that deposits the paste on the solar cell based on the screen-pattern. Snap-
off is the distance the screen and the solar cell. The squeegee pressure and the
snap-off distance are the critical parameters that determine the paste lay down
and geometry of the Ag FS fingers.
Typical paste lay down for Ag/Al RS pads, RS Al and FS Ag are 35–45 mg,
1.1–1.4 g and 100–120 mg, respectively for a 6 inch Al-BSF multi-crystalline solar
cell. An illustrative Ag FS metallization pattern is shown in Figure 17(b). The Ag
finger opening has reduced to below 30 μm, while application of 5 bus-bar is being
increasingly adopted now. With such screen parameter and good paste lay down,
consistent FF of >80% should be obtained for the Al-BSF solar cells with an optical
shading loss of <6%.

6.2 Drying and fast firing of metallization pastes

The metallization pastes consist of metal powder, solvents and organic bind-
ers. In case of FS Ag paste, the paste also contains glass-frit while etches the
SiNx:H layer and makes contact with the n-type emitter [41]. The metal pastes

15
Solar Cells

are dried after printing and finally they are sent through a fast-firing furnace
for sintering and form the RS Al-BSF and FS Ag contact. An example of such
a fast-firing furnace with the temperature profile is shown in Figure 18. The
FS Ag finger sintering process is illustrated in Figure 19. When the solar cell
passes through the fast-firing furnace, the organic binders are burnt, followed
by melting of the glass frit and finally formation of Ag crystallites contacting the
n-type emitter. The firing profile needs to be tuned based on the specific types of
metallization pastes and emitter diffusion profile. As an example, the firing peak
temperature could be low to not form a good ohmic contact on the FS, while a too
high temperature can lead to diffusion of Ag through the junction and shunting
of the p-n junction. Image of a complete multi-crystalline Al-BSF solar cell is
shown in Figure 20.

6.3 Plating-based front-side metallization

The costing of various factors in solar cell processing have decreased over
the years, while the contribution of front Ag is still the most significant [42].
Significant amount of work has been done to replace Ag by alternate metal like cop-
per (Cu) which has a conductivity value of very close to that of Ag and also offers a
potential significant cost advantage [43, 44]. Cu has high diffusivity and solubility
in Si and hence a barrier-layer like nickel (Ni) is deposited on Si prior to Cu plat-
ing [42]. Light-induced plating (LIP) which is derived from conventional plating
utilizes the photovoltaic effect of light to plate the desired metal and has many
advantages compared to conventional plating [43, 44].

Figure 18.
(a) Example of a firing furnace for sintering metal contacts and (b) illustrative temperature profile of a firing
furnace. Source: centrotherm GmbH.

Figure 19.
Illustration of the firing process. (a) Burning out of the organic binders, (b) melting of glass frit which etches
the SiNx:H and (c) Ag crystallite formation at the emitter interface.

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Industrial Silicon Solar Cells
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Figure 20.
(a) FS of a complete solar cell and (b) RS of a complete solar cell.

Ni-Cu-based front-side metallization requires an additional front-side ARC

patterning step unlike the Ag paste-based metallization and in most cases also an
additional Ni sintering step to reduce the contact resistance and have good adhesion of
the metal stack [42]. Commercial DWS cut mc-Si solar cells based on Ni-Cu-Ag plated
stack have been demonstrated with finger width of 22 μm, aspect-ratio of close to 0.5
and similar efficiency as that of reference screen-printed Ag-based solar cells [45].
Continuous improvement in the Ag FS pastes along with simplicity, reliability
and high throughput of the screen-printing process has made it difficult for Ni-Cu-
based metallization to compete with Ag-based FS metallization. However, high
solar cell efficiency concepts like bifacial heterojunction solar cells, where Cu can
be directly plated onto the transparent conducting oxide, the plating process is
simplified and requires only a single tool [39]. Similarly, high efficiency concepts
which require reduced amount of metal can achieve the same using plating-based
metallization [42, 46].

6.4 I-V testing and characterization of solar cells

The final step is I-V testing of the complete solar-cells as per the standard
test conditions (STC), i.e., AM 1.5G, 1000 W/m2 with a Class AAA solar simula-
tor. An example of FS probing of solar cell is shown in Figure 21. The typical
parameters obtained from the I-V tester are indicated in Table 3. I-V testers have
many characterization parameters which can be helpful for diagnosis of solar
cell defects. Representative electroluminescence (EL) and thermal IR image of
a solar cell with some defects are shown in Figures 22(a)–(c). An EL image of a
good solar cell with uniform intensity is shown in Figure 22(a), while for a solar
cell in which the FS fingers are not printed uniformly, a darker contrast can be
seen in Figure 22(b). Figure 22(c) shows a thermal IR image of a solar cell with
a localized shunt which has been formed during one of the processing steps.
In the end, the solar cells are sorted in different efficiency bins based on the
selected classification.

17
Solar Cells

Figure 21.
I-V measurement FS probing for solar cell characterization.

Parameter Comments

Voc (V) Good mc-Si Al-BSF solar cells have a value of >0.635 V
Isc (A) Good mc-Si Al-BSF solar cells have a value of >9.0 A

FF (%) Good mc-Si Al-BSF solar cells have a value of >80%

Efficiency (%) Good mc-Si Al-BSF solar cells have a value of >18.6%

Vmpp (V) Corresponding voltage at the maximum power point

Impp (A) Corresponding current at the maximum power point

Rs (Ω) Good mc-Si Al-BSF solar cells have a value of <1.5 mΩ

Rsh (Ω) Good mc-Si Al-BSF solar cells have a value of >100 Ω

Irev (A) Reverse current at a voltage of −12 V should be <0.5 A for good solar cells

FS BB-BB resistance (Ω) Resistance measured between the BB’s on the FS

RS BB-BB resistance (Ω) Resistance measured between the BB’s on the RS

Table 3.
Parameters for characterization of a solar cell obtained from I-V measurement.

Figure 22.
(a) EL image of a good solar cell, (b) EL image of a solar cell with non-uniformity in Ag finger printing and
(c) thermal IR image of a solar cell indicating presence of localized shunts.

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7. Future trends

DWS has become the standard for mono-crystalline wafers, while it is

expected to have a market share of >80% by 2022 for multi-crystalline wafers
[2]. SWS for multi-crystalline wafers is expected to phase-out by that time.
With DWS, the kerf loss would also become <80 μm by 2022, which would
in turn reduce the poly-Si consumption per wafer below 15 g. 3BB design for
front-contacts are expected to phase-out by 2020 with 50% share for 5BB
design. With continuous improvements in Ag pastes and screens, the FS fin-
ger width is projected to reduce to 30 μm by 2022. Wet-chemical processing
tools have crossed throughput of 8,000 wafers/h in 2018 and would touch
9,000 wafers/h by 2020. Thermal processing equipments have reached through-
put of 5000 wafers/h in 2018 and expected to cross 7,000 wafers/h by 2020. The
metallization and I-V testing/sorting section is expected to have a throughput
of >7,000 wafers/h by 2022.
Al-BSF-based cell technology which has a market share of >60% in 2018 is
expected to reduce to <20% by 2025. With more emphasis on high efficiency
solar cells concepts, share of PERC technology is expected to be >50% by 2022.
Production efficiency of Mono PERC is expected to be >22% by 2022, while for
multi PERC it should touch 21% by the same time. An important aspect related
to multi-PERC is the mitigation of LeTID-based problem to minimize the loss of
efficiency after installations of the modules in the field. Si HJ cells with efficien-
cies of >22% in 2018 after expected to reach stable efficiency of 23% by 2020,
with a market share of around 10% by 2022. High efficiency bifacial cells with an
additional advantage of tapping the solar radiation from the rear-side is expected to
have a market share of 20% by 2022. N-type back contact solar cells are expected to
cross 24% efficiency by 2020.

8. Conclusions

Si solar cells have become an important part of the renewable energy domain
over past decades with matured manufacturing technologies. P-type multi-
crystalline wafers have become the main-stay for solar cell production. However,
with higher efficiency and decreasing production costs, mono-crystalline solar
cells have also gained a significant share and are expected to compete closely with
multi-crystalline wafers in the near future. For standard Al-BSF technology, 19
and 20% has become the bench-mark for multi-crystalline and mono-crystalline
solar cells, respectively. Mono-PERC and multi-PERC cells have reached stabilized
efficiencies of 21.5 and 20%, respectively. In addition, PERC also provides a simpler
approach for bifacial solar cells by having a grid pattern on the RS instead of the full
area contact. High efficiency n-type and bifacial solar cells have a market-share of
<10% which is expected to increase in the future. The manufacturing technologies
have matured considerably over the past few years with further improvements to
increase the throughput.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the colleagues from RCT Solutions GmbH
from whom some of the contents for the chapter have been taken. Mehul
C. Raval would like to thank colleague Jim Zhou for the discussions regarding
black silicon texturing.

19
Solar Cells

Author details

Mehul C. Raval* and Sukumar Madugula Reddy

RCT Solutions GmbH, Konstanz, Germany

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

20
Industrial Silicon Solar Cells
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84817

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