18.5% efficient AlOx/SiNy rear passivated industrial multicrystalline silicon solar cells

Due to the trend toward thinner and higher efficient crystalline silicon solar cells, excellent rear surface passivation and internal optical reflectance have become more and more important. Aluminum oxide (AlOx) capped with silicon nitride (SiNy), which is considered as one of the most promising candidates to achieve superior rear passivation and internal reflectance, has to date been mostly used for the rear side of p-type monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si) solar cells. In this paper, we have optimized rear AlOx/SiNy stacks deposited by industrial plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) passivated emitter and rear cells (PERC). Sufficient passivation activation effect from industrial fast-firing process and SiNy deposition process have been demonstrated, so the samples were not subjected to additional thermal treatment process in the cell fabrication flow. For rear AlOx/SiNy stack, it is shown that when PECVD AlOx is thicker than 40 nm, apparent blisters in fired AlOx deteriorate the cell performance, and the appropriate SiNy capping is N-rich SiNy with thickness of at least 180 nm. After process optimization with the least additional process steps, independently confirmed efficiency of 18.5% for Pluto-PERC with PECVD AlOx/SiNy rear passivation on standard 156 mm × 156 mm p-type mc-Si wafers has been achieved.