Temperature dependent degradation and regeneration of differently doped mc-Si materials

Light and elevated temperature induced degradation is observed for multicrystalline Si PERC-type solar cells, strongly limiting solar cell parameters under operation conditions. In this contribution, we investigate the effect of temperature on the degradation and regeneration kinetics of lifetime samples with different p-doping. While there is no fundamental difference visible between B- and Ga-doped materials, Ga-doped samples generally had a lower starting lifetimes and showed a slower degradation process. Ungettered Ga-doped samples did not regenerate within the applied time frame. For higher treatment temperatures (≥200°C) lifetimes after regeneration exceeded the initial values before degradation for both gettered materials. There are first indications that the degradation reaction is diffusion limited (following Arrhenius-like kinetics), while the observed regeneration kinetics might change for higher temperatures (≥150°C).