Differences in Reverse Bias Voltage Behavior of n-type and p-type Multicrystalline Solar Cells

The use of n-type, instead of p-type, silicon wafers for the production of mc-Si solar cells has a clear effect on the pre-breakdown behavior under reverse bias conditions. In p-type solar cells, material related breakdown patterns that are commonly observed in luminescence and thermography images. These patterns do not appear in the investigated n-type mc-Si solar cells, at least not down to a reverse bias of -16 V. To the best of our knowledge, this difference between p-type and n-type mc-Si solar cells has not yet been described in literature before and could provide important information for the understanding of this type of wafer related breakdown.