Ion-implanted laser-annealed p+ and n+ Regions: A potential solution for industrially feasible high-efficiency N-type interdigitated back-contact solar cells

Xinbo Yang, Ralph Muller, Lujia Xu, Qunyu Bi, Klaus Weber, Evan Franklin, Jan Benick

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The main challenge for interdigitated back-contact (IBC) solar cells is to reduce the fabrication complexity, which consists of multiple high-temperature processing and patterning steps. Patterned ion implantation has been proposed to simplify the manufacture of IBC solar cells, and the annealing of boron and phosphorus implanted areas is still a problem for the application. In this study, a new method consisting of laser annealing and a subsequent low-temperature oxidation (LA&OX) has been developed to co-anneal boron implanted p+ and phosphorus implanted n+ regions by a single step. We found that an additional laser annealing before oxidation could improve the electrical properties of boron-implanted p+ regions effectively; however, it has almost no effect on the phosphorus-implanted n+ regions. An industrially feasible IBC solar cell fabrication technology has been proposed based on the patterned ion implantation and LA&OX processing. The main fabrication steps of the IBC solar cell could be reduced to ten steps, and only one high-temperature oxidation step is required. As-designed IBC cell shows a potential efficiency higher than 23% according to simulations with the experimental parameters.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number6924717
Pages (from-to)87-93
Number of pages7
JournalIEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
Volume5
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Ion implantation
  • interdigitated back-contact (IBC) cell
  • laser annealing (LA)
  • n-type silicon

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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