Boron Emitter Formation by Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation in n-type PERT Silicon Solar Cells

The use of plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) is a relevant approach for the development of advanced solar cells technologies at lower cost (€/W p ). In this paper, we report on the development of homogeneous boron (B) doping of n-type crystalline silicon (cSi) substrate by the PIII technique. Using diborane (B 2 H 6 ) as gas precursor, various doping profiles were identified fitting the requirements for boron-doped emitters in n-type PERT solar cells. Particularly, saturation current density (J 0e ) of 50 fA/cm 2 were achieved on symmetrical samples for a 94 Ω/sg textured B-emitter passivated with SiO 2 /SiN stack. Bifacial n-type Passivated Emitter Rear Totally-diffused (n-PERT) solar cells were fabricated using the PIII technology and conversion efficiencies up to 19.8% on 239 cm 2 Cz-Si wafers were obtained. As a consequence, these results indicate that PIII can compete with beamline technology but will have lower running cost. It is therefore a promising technology to create high efficiency cSi solar cells.