Investigation of rapid thermal firing for high efficiency of large area multi-crystalline Si solar cells

We have developed a simplified mass-production process for high efficiency polycrystalline Si solar cells. In this paper, we review some of the important fundamental results to contribute to high efficiency for simplified process. As a new attempt to get high efficiency, we tried to rapid firing of the silver paste instead of the ordinary slow firing. As a result of optimization of peak firing temperature, keeping time at the peak temperature, heating rate and cooling rate, rapid-firing cell produced about 0.4% higher absolute efficiency than the conventional slow firing cell. This view points shows that 17% efficiency will be expected in the mass-production line when further brushing up of each process without increasing process steps and adding expensive equipments.