Industrial-scale deposition of nanocrystalline silicon oxide for 26.4%-efficient silicon heterojunction solar cells with copper electrodes

by Cao Yu, Kun Gao, Chen-Wei Peng, Chenran He, Shibo Wang, Wei Shi, Vince Allen, Jiteng Zhang, Dengzhi Wang, Gangyu Tian, Yifan Zhang, Wenzhu Jia, Yuanhong Song, Youzhong Hu, Jack Colwell, Chunfang Xing, Qing Ma, Huiting Wu, Liangyuan Guo, Gangqiang Dong, Hao Jiang, Haihong Wu, Xinyu Wang, Dacheng Xu, Kun Li, Jun Peng, Wenzhu Liu, Daniel Chen, Alison Lennon, Xinmin Cao, Stefaan De Wolf, Jian Zhou, Xinbo Yang, Xiaohong Zhang
Article Year: 2023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01388-4

Bibliography

Yu, C., Gao, K., Peng, C., He, C., Wang, S., Shi, W., Allen, V., Zhang, J., Wang, D., Tian, G., Zhang, Y., Jia, W., Song, Y., Hu, Y., Colwell, J., Xing, C., Ma, Q., Wu, H., Guo, L., Dong, G., Jiang, H., Wu, H., Wang, X., Xu, D., Li, K., Peng, J., Liu, W., Chen, D., Lennon, A., Cao, X., De Wolf, S., Zhou, J., Yang, X., Zhang, X.

Abstract

To unlock the full performance potential of silicon heterojunction solar cells requires reductions of parasitic absorption and shadowing losses. Yet the translation of the hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon oxide (nc-SiOx:H) window layer and copper-plated electrodes to a cost-effective and scalable production-relevant context remains one of the largest roadblocks towards mainstream adoption of silicon heterojunction technology. Here we address the first challenge by developing an industrial-scale high-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition system with a minimized standing wave effect, enabling the deposition of doped nc-SiOx:H with excellent electron selectivity, low parasitic absorption and high uniformity. Next, we demonstrate seed-free copper plating, resulting in grids with a high aspect ratio and low metal fraction. By implementing the doped nc-SiOx:H window layer, certified efficiencies of 25.98% and 26.41% are obtained for M6-size bifacial silicon heterojunction devices with screen-printed silver electrodes and copper-plated electrodes, respectively. These results underline the performance potential of silicon heterojunction technology and lower the threshold towards their mass manufacturing.

Keywords

Materials of energy  and catalysis Solar cells