Controllable Simultaneous Bifacial Cu-Plating for High-Efficiency Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Journal Article (2022)
Author(s)

C. Han (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices, Shenzhen Institute of Wide-bandgap Semiconductors)

G. Yang (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)

P.A. Procel Moya (Universidad San Francisco de Quito, TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)

Daragh O'Connor (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)

Y. Zhao (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)

Anirudh Gopalakrishnan (Student TU Delft)

Xiaodan Zhang (Nankai University)

M Zeman (TU Delft - Electrical Sustainable Energy)

Luana Mazzarella (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)

Olindo Isabella (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)

Research Group
Photovoltaic Materials and Devices
Copyright
© 2022 C. Han, G. Yang, P.A. Procel Moya, D. O'Connor, Y. Zhao, Anirudh Gopalakrishnan, Xiaodan Zhang, M. Zeman, L. Mazzarella, O. Isabella
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.202100810
More Info
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Publication Year
2022
Language
English
Copyright
© 2022 C. Han, G. Yang, P.A. Procel Moya, D. O'Connor, Y. Zhao, Anirudh Gopalakrishnan, Xiaodan Zhang, M. Zeman, L. Mazzarella, O. Isabella
Research Group
Photovoltaic Materials and Devices
Issue number
6
Volume number
6
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Abstract

Bifacial (BF) copper-plated crystalline silicon solar cell is an attractive topic to concurrently reduce silver consumption and maintain good device performance. However, it is still challenging to realize a high aspect ratio (AR) of the metal fingers. Herein, a new type of hybrid-shaped Cu finger is electromagnetically fabricated in a BF plating process. Cyclic voltammetry is employed to disclose the electrochemical behaviors of cupric ions in monofacial and simultaneous BF Cu-plating processes, such that the controllability of the plating process could be assessed. The optimal hybrid Cu finger is composed of a rectangular bottom part and a round top part, such that an utmost effective AR value of 1.73 is reached. In BF Cu-plating, two sub-three-electrode electrochemical cells are employed to realize equal metal finger heights on both sides of the wafer. Compared to our low thermal-budget screen-printing metallization, the Cu-plated silicon heterojunction devices show both optical and electrical advantages (based on lab-scale tests). The champion BF Cu-plated device shows a front-side efficiency of 22.1% and a bifaciality factor of 0.99.