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Morphological, Optical and Electrical Analysis of Ag Polymer-Nickel Low Temperature Top Electrode in Silicon Solar Cell for Tandem Application

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Abstract

Metallisation is one of the important factors that affect the production of solar cells with good quality and performance. Front contact made with a high-temperature process can cause shunting of the shallow emitter layer. To be applied as the top electrode in a silicon solar cell, the contacts produced must be thin and semi-transparent with high transmission and low resistance. In this study, the combination of Ag polymer and nickel was chosen as the top electrode. Nickel was fabricated by using a doped silicon wafer coated in electroless solution and annealed using a quartz tube furnace. Ag polymer was fabricated by screen printing and drying in an oven at low fabrication temperature. The contacts were deposited on a phosphoric acid diffused layer on silicon wafer. The contact performance of KOH-based texturing surface as a nickel attachment site and the compatibility with Ag polymer-nickel contact were studied. The thickness of Ag polymer-nickel (12 μm) was comparable with that of the Ag contact (10 μm). Surface morphological analysis showed the absence of an oxygen element in the Ag polymer-nickel contact. Then, the series resistance of Ag polymer-nickel on the textured silicon wafer was compared with that of the high temperature Ag contact. The series resistance value of Ag polymer-nickel contact on KOH textured silicon was 2.06 Ω, whereas that of the Ag contact that formed at 700 °C was 165 Ω. Moreover, the transmission within IR region of Ag polymer-nickel contact was 7.25 a.u., which was higher than that of the Ag contact (6.75 a.u.). This finding showed that Ag polymer-nickel contact can form low resistance ohmic contact with high transmission and can protect against moisture.

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Acknowledgement

This project is funded by the grant of Development of Silicon-Perovskite Tandem based Third Generation High Efficiency Solar Cell (LRGS/1/2019/UKM-UKM/6/1) from Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), 43600, Bangi, Malaysia

    Nur Fairuz Rostan, Siti Nor Fazlina Abdul Hamid, Zon Fazlila Mohd Ahir, Mohd Adib Ibrahim, Kamaruzzaman Sopian & Suhaila Sepeai

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  1. Nur Fairuz Rostan
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  2. Siti Nor Fazlina Abdul Hamid
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Contributions

Nur Fairuz Rostan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - Original Draft. Siti Nor Fazlina Abdul Hamid: Data curation. Zon Fazlila Mohd Ahir: Data curation. Mohd Adib Ibrahim: Funding acquisition, Resources. Kamaruzzaman Sopian: Funding acquisition, Resources. Suhaila Sepeai: Writing- Reviewing and Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Suhaila Sepeai.

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Rostan, N.F., Hamid, S.N.F.A., Ahir, Z.F.M. et al. Morphological, Optical and Electrical Analysis of Ag Polymer-Nickel Low Temperature Top Electrode in Silicon Solar Cell for Tandem Application. Silicon 14, 12421–12435 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-022-01950-x

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