Impact of screen printing silver paste components on the space charge region recombination losses of industrial silicon solar cells

An approved measurement method for evaluating space charge region recombination (SCR-recombination) induced by the screen printed front side metallization is applied for industrial solar cells with aluminum back surface field (Al-BSF) on monocrystalline Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si). The H-patterned base grid of all processed solar cells is screen printed with a commercially available front side silver paste, ensuring sufficiently good contacting and therefore good electrical performance of the solar cells. Additionally, irregular contact fingers are realized between the regular contact fingers of the base grid by applying different screen printing layouts with commercially available front side pastes to increase the front side metallization fraction linearly as well as by applying various test pastes for the layout with the highest metallization fraction. Well-known components of glass frits as lead oxide, zinc oxide, bismuth oxide and boron oxide can affect SCR-recombination. Therefore we fabricated test pastes with these specific paste/glass frit components. By applying this test structure, a comparable qualitative evaluation of SCR-recombination with respect to the specific paste component is demonstrated. Quantitative evaluations regarding the electrical performance of the solar cells as well as related microstructural investigations are presented.

► We quantify SCR-recombination depending on the front side metallization fraction.
► We evaluate the influence of common silver paste components on SCR-recombination.
► Contacting behavior determines quantity of SCR-recombination for Cz-Si solar cells.
► SEM results confirm IV results regarding shunting and SCR-recombination.