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Upright pyramids vs. inverted pyramids surface textures: a comparative investigation on the electrical properties of PERC solar cells

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Abstract

Surface texturing is one of the key steps in the manufacturing process of mono-crystalline silicon solar cells. The mainstream texturing process applied currently is based on alkaline texturing that produces upright pyramids (UPs)-structured surface, while the inverted pyramids (IPs) structure has also received growing interest due to the lower reflectance. Here, we examine the influence of these two different structures on the surface reflectance, phosphorus (P) diffusion profile, surface passivation performance and quantum efficiency of the solar cells. The results show that the IPs structure is advantageous over UPs structure in front side reflectance, P captured ability, back side passivation effect after polishing, and silver-silicon contact resistivity. However, its poor surface passivation performance on the front side limits the efficiency of the as-fabricated solar cells as compared with the UPs-structured wafers. Therefore, improving the front side surface passivation of the wafers textured with IPs structure could be a key factor that determines the feasibility of commercialization of the related texturing technology.

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The data of current findings will be made available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Key Research and Development Program of Anhui Province of China (No. 2022l07020011).

Funding

Anhui Provincial Key Research and Development Plan, 2022l07020011, Dongming Liu

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, 243002, Anhui, China

    Rui Tong, Chengcheng Li & Dongming Liu

  2. JA Solar Technology Co., Ltd, Yangzhou, 225131, Jiangsu, China

    Rui Tong

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Sheng Ma

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, Zhejiang, China

    Xiaofeng Liu

  5. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and School of Physical Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, Jiangsu, China

    Shuai Zou

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  1. Rui Tong
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  4. Xiaofeng Liu
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Contributions

RT contributed to the conception, investigation, data curation and writing. CL involved in the data analysis and revision. SM and SZ contributed to the sample preparation, data acquisition and analysis. XL involved in the methodology and revision. DL supervised the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dongming Liu.

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Tong, R., Li, C., Ma, S. et al. Upright pyramids vs. inverted pyramids surface textures: a comparative investigation on the electrical properties of PERC solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 54 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09567-x

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