0.4% absolute efficiency increase for inline-diffused screen-printed multicrystalline silicon wafer solar cells by non-acidic deep emitter etch-back

•A novel inline-diffused multicrystalline silicon solar cell fabrication process is reported.•This process uses a new HF-free solution, the SERIS etch and uses deep emitter etch-back.•This process completely removed surface contaminants from the inline-diffused emitter.•In spite of deep etch-back, the SERIS etch process maintains conformity of the textured surface.•The reported etch-back cells have an absolute efficiency gain of 0.4 % over the non-etch-back ones.

Emitter formation is one of the most critical and crucial process steps in the fabrication of standard silicon wafer solar cells. Typically the photovoltaic industry uses tube based phosphorus diffusion, using phosphorus oxychloride as the dopant source. Alternately, a low-cost inline diffusion using phosphoric acid as a dopant source can be used. However, proper process conditions must be used to meet solar cell energy conversion efficiencies obtained by tube diffusion. In this work, we present the application of a non-acidic homogeneous emitter etch-back process – the ‘SERIS etch’ – for inline-diffused emitters in order to raise the efficiency of multicrystalline silicon (multi-Si) wafer solar cells. We apply both light and heavy emitter etch-backs on inline-diffused emitters with sheet resistance (Rsq) values in the 40–60 Ω/sq range to achieve emitters with a target Rsq of ~70 Ω/sq. The emitter surface reflectance and doping uniformity are maintained even after an etch-back that results in a Rsq change of ~30 Ω/sq. An average cell efficiency gain of 0.4% (absolute) is reported for cells with heavy etch-back when compared to the as-diffused non-etch-back screen-printed full-area aluminum back surface field solar cells and efficiencies up to 17.9% are achieved. Besides, best lot of the etch-back inline-diffused cells shows a 0.2% (absolute) efficiency gain over the standard tube-diffused cells. These results show that the ‘SERIS etch’ etch-back process can enable higher-efficiency industrial inline-diffused multi-Si wafer solar cells.

Graphical abstractIn this work, we present the application of a non-acidic homogeneous emitter etch-back process – the SERIS etch – for inline-diffused emitters in order to raise the efficiency of 156 mm square industrial-grade p-type multicrystalline silicon (multi-Si) wafer solar cells. An average cell efficiency gain of 0.4 % (absolute) is reported for cells with heavy etch-back when compared to the as-diffused non-etch-back screen-printed full-area aluminum back surface field cells and efficiencies up to 17.9% are achieved. These results show that the SERIS etch etch-back process can enable higher-efficiency industrial multi-Si wafer solar cells.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide