Effect of oxygen concentration and oxygen precipitation of the single crystalline wafer on solar cell efficiency

Woongjin Energy Co., Ltd., Daejeon 305-509, Korea(Received November 13, 2014)(Revised November 27, 2014)(Accepted December 5, 2014)Abstract Recent studies have shown methods of improving solar cell efficiency. Especially on single crystalline siliconwafer which is high-efficiency solar cell material that has been widely studied. Interstitial oxygen (Oi) is the main impurityin the Czochralski (Cz) growing method, and excess of this can form precipitates during cell fabrication. We havedemonstrated the effect of Oi impurity and oxygen precipitation concentration of the wafer on Cz-silicon solar cell efficiency.The result showed a decrease in cell efficiency as Oi and oxygen precipitation increase. Moreover, we have found that thecritical point of [Oi] to bring higher cell efficiency is at 14.5 ppma in non-existent Bulk Micro Defect (BMD).Key wordsSolar cells, Efficiency, Czochralski silicon, Oxygen precipitation, BMD