• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.125-129
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• 2019

Recently, carrier-selective contact solar cells have attracted much interests because of its high efficiency with low recombination current density. In this study, we investigated the effect of phosphorus doped amorphous silicon layer's characteristics on the passivation properties of tunnel oxide passivated carrier-selective contact solar cells. We fabricated symmetric structure sample with poly-Si/SiOx/c-Si by deposition of phosphorus doped amorphous silicon layer on the silicon oxide with subsequent annealing and hydrogenation process. We varied deposition temperature, deposition thickness, and annealing conditions, and blistering, lifetime and passivation quality was evaluated. The result showed that blistering can be controlled by deposition temperature, and passivation quality can be improved by controlling annealing conditions. Finally, we achieved blistering-free electron carrier-selective contact with 730mV of i-Voc, and cell-like structure consisted of front boron emitter and rear passivated contact showed 682mV i-Voc.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.332-340
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• 2023

Crystalline silicon solar cells have attracted great attention for their various advantages, such as the availability of raw materials, high-efficiency potential, and well-established processing sequence. Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells are widely regarded as one of the most prospective candidates for the next generation of high-performance solar cells because an efficiency of 26% has been achieved in small-area solar cells. Compared to n-type TOPCon solar cells, the photo conversion efficiency (PCE) of p-type TOPCon is slightly higher. The highest PCEs of p-type TOPCon and n-type TOPCon solar cells are 26.0% and 25.8%, respectively. Despite the highest efficiency in small-area cells, limited progress has been achieved in p-type TOPCon solar cells for large are due to their lower carrier lifetime and inferior surface passivation with the boron-doped c-Si wafer. Nevertheless, it is of great importance to promoting the p-type TOPCon technology due to its lower price and well-established manufacturing procedures with slight modifications in the PERC solar cells production lines. The progress in different approaches to increase the efficiencies of p-type TOPCon solar cells has been reported in this review article and is expected to set valuable strategies to promote the passivation technology of p-type TOPCon, which could further increase the efficiency of TOPCon solar cells.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.75-83
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• 2021

The tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) structure got more consideration for development of high performance solar cells by the introduction of a tunnel oxide layer between the substrate and poly-Si is best for attaining interface passivation. The quality of passivation of the tunnel oxide layer clearly depends on the bond of SiO in the tunnel oxide layer, which is affected by the subsequent annealing and the tunnel oxide layer was formed in the suboxide region (SiO, Si₂O, Si₂O₃) at the interface with the substrate. In the suboxide region, an oxygen-rich bond is formed as a result of subsequent annealing that also improves the quality of passivation. To control the surface morphology, annealing profile, and acceleration rate, an oxide tunnel junction structure with a passivation characteristic of 700 mV or more (V_oc) on a p-type wafer could achieved. The quality of passivation of samples subjected to RTP annealing at temperatures above 900℃ declined rapidly. To improve the quality of passivation of the tunnel oxide layer, the physical properties and thermal stability of the thin layer must be considered. TOPCon silicon solar cell has a boron diffused front emitter, a tunnel-SiO_x/n⁺-poly-Si/SiN_x:H structure at the rear side, and screen-printed electrodes on both sides. The saturation currents J_o of this structure on polished surface is 1.3 fA/cm² and for textured silicon surfaces is 3.7 fA/cm² before printing the silver contacts. After printing the Ag contacts, the J_o of this structure increases to 50.7 fA/cm² on textured silicon surfaces, which is still manageably less for metal contacts. This structure was applied to TOPCon solar cells, resulting in a median efficiency of 23.91%, and a highest efficiency of 24.58%, independently. The conversion efficiency of interdigitated back-contact solar cells has reached up to 26% by enhancing the optoelectrical properties for both-sides-contacted of the cells.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제36권3호
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• pp.233-240
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• 2023

p-type Tunnel Oxide Passivating Contacts (TOPCon) solar cell is fabricated with a poly-Si/SiO_x structure. It simultaneously achieves surface passivation and enhances the carriers' selective collection, which is a promising technology for conventional solar cells. The quality of passivation is depended on the quality of the tunnel oxide layer at the interface with the c-Si wafer, which is affected by the bond of SiO formed during the subsequent annealing process. The highest cell efficiency reported to date for the laboratory scale has increased to 26.1%, fabricated by the Institute for Solar Energy Research. The cells used a p-type float zone silicon with an interdigitated back contact (IBC) structure that fabricates poly-Si and SiO_x layer achieves the highest implied open-circuit voltage (iV_oc) is 750 mV, and the highest level of edge passivation is 40%. This review presents an overview of p-type TOPCon technologies, including the ultra-thin silicon oxide layer (SiO_x) and poly-silicon layer (poly-Si), as well as the advancement of the SiO_x and poly-Si layers. Subsequently, the limitations of improving efficiency are discussed in detail. Consequently, it is expected to provide a basis for the simplification of industrial mass production.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2015년도 제49회 하계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.82-82
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• 2015

Industrial crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells with using a screen printing technology share the global market over 90% and they will continue to be the same for at least the next decade. It seems that the $2^{nd}$ generation and the $3^{rd}$ generation technologies have not yet demonstrated competitiveness in terms of performance and cost. In 2014, new world record efficiency 25.6% (Area-$143.7cm^2$, Voc-0.740V, $Jsc-41.8mA/cm^2$, FF-0.827) was announced from Panasonic and its cell structure is Back Contact $HIT^*$ c-Si solar cell. Here, amorphous silicon passivated contacts were newly applied to back contact solar cell. On the other hand, 24.9% $TOPCon^{**}$ cell was announced from Fraunhofer ISE and its key technology is an excellent passivation quality applying tunnel oxide (<2 nm) between metal and silicon or emitter and base. As a result, to realize high efficiency, high functional technologies are quite required to overcome a theoretical limitation of c-Si solar cell efficiency. In this presentation, Si solar cell technology summarized in the International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics ($^{***}ITRPV$ 2014) is introduced, and the present status of R&D associated with various c-Si solar cell technologies will be reviewed. In addition, national R&D projects of c-Si solar cells to be performed by Korea University are shown briefly.