>23% Silicon heterojunction solar cells in Meyer Burger's Demo line: Results of pilot production on mass production tools

After a flat PV market for several years, it recently started to grow strongly again. More and more solar cell manufacturers focus on high efficiency solar cells with low costs. The hydrogenated amorphous (a-Si:H) /crystalline silicon (c-Si) hetero-junction (SHJ) technology provides a well suited application to achieve efficiencies above 23% with process temperatures below 200°C. The whole process flow (Fig. 1) is simple and with less process steps compared to the standard solar cell process[1]. The low temperature coefficient (−0.2 %/K) of the SHJ solar cells provides additional benefit in output power for PV systems. The recent world record SHJ cell with an efficiency of 25.6% on a 4 inch n-type solar cell, reached by Panasonic Corporation has shown even more potential for future mass production.