Single side passivated contact technology exceeding 22.5% with industrial production equipment

As the market share of passivated emitter rear cell (PERC) technology in the PV industry continues to grow, the solar community has already begun looking for further improvements to increase cell and module power while lowering the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). Standard PERC and passivated emitter rear totally diffused (PERT) technologies suffer from high recombination losses at the front- and rear-side metal contacts. Passivated contact technology has attracted considerable interest as a solution to this problem in order to reach efficiencies above 24.0% while retaining the use of existing production equipment. In order to achieve competitive and good surface passivation, it is crucial to focus on high quality ultra-thin tunnel oxide layers processed in line with high-throughput capable, stable and reliable production equipment. Furthermore, Meyer Burger is also working on similar methods for polycrystalline silicon processes. As of today, low-absorbing single-side poly-Si layers can be deposited by inline PECVD as doped (electron-selective or hole-selective) hydrogenated amorphous layers followed by subsequent high temperature crystallization. Here we present the latest results from Meyer Burger’s research facility in Germany which has achieved >22.5% on a passivated contact solar cell with a rear-side poly-Si/interfacial-oxide stack deposited using industrial production equipment.