Modeling the potential of screen printed front junction CZ silicon solar cell with tunnel oxide passivated back contact

Carrier selective passivated contacts composed of thin oxide, n + polycrystalline Si and metal on top of a n-Si absorber can significantly lower the recombination current density (Jorear ≤8 fA/cm2) under the contact while providing excellent specific contact resistance (5–10 mΩ-cm2); 25.1% efficient small area cells with photolithography front contacts on boron doped selective emitter and Fz wafers have been achieved by Fraunhofer ISE using their tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) approach. This paper shows a methodology to model such passivated contact cells using Sentaurus device model, which involves replacing the TOPCon region by carrier selective electron and hole recombination velocities to match the measured Jorear of the TOPCon region as well as all the light IV values of the cell. We first validated the methodology by modeling a 24.9% reference cell. The model was then extended to assess the efficiency potential of large area TOPCon cells on commercial grade n-type Cz material with screen-printed front contacts. To use realistic input parameters, a 21% n-type PERT cell was fabricated on Cz wafer (5 Ω-cm, 1.5-ms lifetime). Modeling showed that the cell efficiency will improve to only 21.6% if the back of this cell is replaced by the above TOPCon, and the performance is limited by the homogenous emitter. Efficiency was then modeled to improve to 22.6% with the implementation of selective emitter (150/20 Ω/sq). Finally, it is shown that screen printing of 40-µm-wide lines and improved bulk material (10 Ω-cm, 3-ms lifetime) can raise the single side TOPCon Cz cell efficiency to 23.2%. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.