Power-loss Analysis of Advanced PERC Cells Reaching 20.5% Energy Conversion Efficiency

We recently demonstrated at imec a relatively simple process sequence for the formation of copper based front contacts consisting of: i) defining the front contact pattern by laser ablation ii) plating of the contacts using Ni/Cu/Ag in a single plating sequence and finally iii) contact sintering. In this paper, we conduct a power loss analysis of the best 20.5% (confirmed by ISE CalLab) PERC solar cell produced on 125 mm magnetically pulled CZ (m-CZ) Si with Ni/Cu/Ag contacts. Based on this power loss analysis, we estimate potential improvements in cell design enabling >21% energy conversion efficiencies.