Passivation characterisation of poly-Si based passivating contacts

Investigating the benefits of pinhole-enhanced passivation and a new method to extract metal-induced recombination

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

R.G.M. Gram Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Contributors

O. Isabella Photovoltaic Materials and Devices - EEMCS (supervisor 1)
G. Yang Photovoltaic Materials and Devices - EEMCS (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Copyright: © 2021 Remon Gram
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Published Date

19-11-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Abstract

To meet the rapidly increasing global demand for energy, the potential of solar energy is being exploited towards its maximum capacity. The invention of poly-Si based passivating contacts has created an opportunity for c-Si solar cells to reach conversion efficiencies above 25%, while keeping the processing sequence relatively simple. Based on ultra-thin SiO푥 and highly doped poly-Si, this contact structure combines chemical passivation with field-effect passivation to enhance the c-Si surface passivation. Ever since 2016, the carrier transport mechanism through pinholes in the SiO푥 has been investigated, showing that the pinholes can aid in achieving a low contact resistivity (휌푐) while maintaining a low recombination (퐽0). In this work, the presence of pinholes and their impact on the passivation quality in poly-Si passivating contacts is investigated. Additionally, a method is explored to extract the metal-induced recombination (퐽0,푚푒푡푎푙), without the need for fabricating a solar cell structure...