Transparent silicon carbide/tunnel SiO2 passivation for c‐Si solar cell front side: Enabling Jsc > 42 mA/cm2 and iVoc of 742 mV

• DOI: 10.1002/pip.3244
• Publication Date: 2020-01-17T04:59:32Z
• Authors: Manuel Pomaska; Malte Köhler; Paul Procel Moya; Alexandr Zamchiy; Aryak Singh; Do Yun Kim; Olindo Isabella; Miro Zeman; Shenghao Li; Kaifu Qiu; Alexander Eberst; Vladimir Smirnov; Friedhelm Finger; Uwe Rau; Kaining Ding
• Keywords: Passivation; Open-circuit voltage

Abstract N‐type microcrystalline silicon carbide (μc‐SiC:H(n)) is a wide bandgap material that very promising for the use on front side of crystalline (c‐Si) solar cells. It offers high optical transparency and suitable refractive index reduces parasitic absorption reflection losses, respectively. In this work, we investigate potential hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD)–grown μc‐SiC:H(n) c‐Si cells with interdigitated back contacts (IBC). We demonstrate outstanding passivation quality tunnel oxide (SiO 2 )–passivated an implied open‐circuit voltage 742 mV saturation current density 3.6 fA/cm . This excellent achieved directly after HWCVD at 250°C heater temperature without any further treatments like recrystallization or hydrogenation. Additionally, developed magnesium fluoride (MgF )/silicon nitride (SiN x :H)/silicon antireflection coatings reduce losses to only 0.47 mA/cm MgF /SiN :H/μc‐SiC:H(n) 0.62 /μc‐SiC:H(n). Finally, calculations Sentaurus TCAD simulation using /μc‐SiC:H(n)/SiO /c‐Si as layer stack in IBC cell reveal short‐circuit 42.2 , 738 mV, fill factor 85.2% maximum power conversion efficiency 26.6%.