Materials

This paper presents recent developments of ECN’s n-Pasha (passivated on all sides H-pattern) solar cell technology. The n-Pasha cell, currently being produced on an industrial scale by Yingli Solar, is a solar cell fabricated on n-type Cz material with homogeneous diffusions, dielectric passivation and printed metallization on both sides. The metallization is applied in an open H-pattern to both sides, which makes it suitable for bifacial applications. In order to improve both cell performance and the cost of ownership of n-Pasha solar cells, the ECN R&D team has focused on several aspects of the device design and processing. By reducing metal coverage and improving the quality of the front-side metallization, tuning the back-surface field (BSF) doping and improving the front- and rear-surface passivation, it has been possible to obtain an average efficiency of 20%, with top efficiencies of 20.2%. At the same time, the amount of silver used for metallization has been decreased by over 50% and is now similar to that used for p-type solar cells. Furthermore, it is shown that with the ECN n-Pasha cell concept, wafers from the full resistivity range of n-Cz ingots can be used to make cells without losses in efficiency. Combining the improved efficiency and the reduction in cost makes the n-Pasha cell concept a very cost effective solution for manufacturing highly efficient solar cells and modules.

Module assembly drives as much as a third of the total module cost and can have a significant impact on overall module performance in terms of efficiency and module lifetime. This paper reviews some of the newest moduling material trends, and the outlook for the module market.

A major cause of failure in PV modules is related to the penetration of the module by moisture and its retention within. The presence of moisture results in corrosion of metallic contacts or accelerates the molecular degradation of the encapsulant, causing a loss of transparency and in some cases the development of yellowing. The moisture penetration may be intrinsic to the resin itself, but most often it will occur at the interfaces. As a consequence, the adhesion of the resin to glass, metallization, cell and backsheet surfaces may be affected. Engineers involved in the assembly of PV modules used to link adhesion degradation issues to poor conditions for storing polymeric materials, especially the encapsulation resin and the backsheet. In this paper another cause, which has not yet been studied by specialists, is discussed. It is shown that the welding of copper strips can induce residues which prevent the satisfactory adhesion of the resin, resulting in elamination. This phenomenon is identified by ‘spots’ along the busbars after lamination. The study highlights the possible consequences of these defects for a module’s performance, after consecutive thermal cycling, damp-heat and humidity-freeze testing. Recommendations are also given for choosing a suitable solder flux and optimizing the soldering process, in order to maintain satisfactory control over potential delamination problems.

Despite the drop in price of silicon wafers, they are still one of the main factors influencing the cost and performance of Si-based solar cells. These two consequences have initiated a growing commercial interest in mono-cast (castmono, mono-like or quasi-mono) Si wafers, supported by R&D in the areas of material characterization, correlation with cell efficiencies, and mono-cast material use in advanced cell technologies. This paper gives a broad overview and comparison of commercially available grades of mono-cast material from different suppliers. The performance of the material from production in high-throughput screen-printing lines, as well as an analysis of the main material characteristics influencing these results, is presented. A characterization using a lifetime tester and a photoluminescence (PL) imaging tool has shown that not only grain boundaries but also dislocations could cause a drop in cell Voc of more than 15mV. Wafers with large surface areas of Si lattice planes, when processed with anisotropic texturing, could yield an increase in Isc greater than 400mA for 6" substrates, as compared to the isotropic-textured equivalents. Furthermore, when a high-grade mono-cast material processed in anisotropic texturing was compared with CZ mono material from the same supplier and of the same resistivity, light-induced degradation (LID), presented as combined Voc and Isc degradation, was only one-third of that in CZ material. However, although mono-cast material has the potential to increase cell line performance to the same level as that gained by important process and technological improvements, it imposes very high requirements for better material sorting in order to achieve stable cell electrical performance and module aesthetics acceptable to the market.

Emitter formation is one of the most critical processes in the fabrication of silicon wafer solar cells. The process for standard emitter formation adopted in the photovoltaic industry is tube-based diffusion, using phosphorus oxychloride as the dopant source. A potentially low-cost alternative that typically results in lower solar cell efficiencies is in-line diffusion, using phosphoric acid as the dopant source. The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) recently developed a technique called the ‘SERIS etch’, a non-acidic etch-back process technology that provides a controllable, uniform and substantially conformal etch-back suitable for solar cell processing. By using the SERIS etch, efficiencies of up to 18.7% have been demonstrated for omogeneous-emitter silicon wafer cells; a 0.4%abs efficiency improvement has also been achieved for a unique selective-emitter approach exploiting this novel etch. All work was carried out on industrial-grade p-type Cz wafers with conventional screen-printed metallization and a full-area aluminium back-surface field (Al-BSF). With Al local BSF (LBSF) homogeneous-emitter solar cells, efficiencies of 19.0% were achieved using in-line emitter diffusion and the SERIS etch, a 0.7%abs efficiency increase over the baseline efficiency at the time. To the authors’ knowledge, these are the highest solar cell efficiencies ever reported for in-line-diffused silicon solar cells. Moreover, the SERIS etch is a costeffective alternative to generating pyramid-textured surfaces without using conventional metal-assisted siliconetching processes.

A record-low spot price in the wake of oversupply and the aggressive cost-reduction roadmap of the PV industry are putting polysilicon producers under pressure to bring down their manufacturing costs. With the dominant Siemens process approaching a limit for further cost cuts, technologies based on the deposition from monosilane (SiH4) have now become the focus of attention.

The cost of PV modules manufactured and sold in 2012 is highly reliant on the materials used in the construction. A significant part of the market price is driven by the bill of materials, while other direct costs and depreciation form a small proportion of the total cost. Changes within the supply chain, and in the cost of the materials needed and used, are extremely important influences on the module cost and the end market price. In 2012 we have seen a slowdown in growth in the installation of both commercial and residential PV, despite dramatic falls in module costs. Some of the trends and effects of these changes on the materials supply chain for PV modules will be examined in this paper.

In slurry-based wafering of silicon bricks using multi-wire saws, the slurry is subject to significant evolution with time as the grits become worn and the silicon kerf accumulates. A good understanding of this evolution would allow wafer producers to make better-informed decisions on when and how to replenish slurry during wafering. This paper summarizes certain important slurry properties and presents some experimental results regarding their evolution. Sampling the slurry at the front and rear of silicon bricks during wafering has allowed the effect of a single pass through the sawing channel to be studied. The wear on the slurry grit is interpreted in terms of identifying what portion of the particle-size distribution plays the most critical role in wafering, and how this critical region changes as the slurry ages. It is found that in a relatively fresh slurry, the particles around the median size and slightly larger are the most active, while particles more than a few μm below the median play only a small part. As the slurry ages, the active region of the particle-size distribution becomes narrower, and shifts towards larger particles even though there are fewer such particles available. This leads to less slurry–brick interaction and poorer material removal properties.

Unidirectional solidification of large Si ingots from the melt phase is currently one of the most important technologies for producing mc-Si for PV cells. Si ingot furnaces began from casting equipment, and have been improved by DSS (directional solidification system) or DSS-like methods. To improve PV cell efficiency and reduce costs, intensive development has focused on increasing a single ingot’s volume, reducing impurities and controlling the growth speed and temperature gradient. One of the latest developments of Si ingot furnaces is mono-like crystalline silicon growth using a seed preservation method and more accurate control. The Si ingot furnaces are optimized with precise control of temperature gradients and growth speed for the formation of a large unit of quasi-monocrystalline Si. This optimization can further improve a PV cell’s efficiency by at least 1%. In order to obtain fundamental knowledge about the key process steps that determine the growth and electrical quality of mc-Si via directional solidification in an ingot furnace, a combined modelling-measuring approach is essential. Moreover, a mathematical model of the Si ingot casting process can be used for model-based process control.

Solar-grade silicon (SoG-Si) based on metallurgical refining processes, often called upgraded metallurgical-grade silicon (UMG-Si), is expected to play an important role in achieving the solar industry’s necessary cost targets per Wp in order to compete with other energy sources. The broad term ‘UMG-Si’ currently embraces types of silicon feedstock that differ quite substantially in product quality and performance. This paper presents a summary of the work carried out by Elkem on low-cost production of silicon feedstock via a flexible, recycling metallurgical processing route with the lowest carbon footprint on the market. Results are given that qualify Elkem Solar Silicon® (ESS™) as a SoG-Si, with comparable efficiencies to polysilicon (poly-Si) from the traditional Siemens process. The latest results on the performance of modules based on ESS are reported. An indication of the stability of older modules based on SoG-Si feedstock from Elkem is also considered. On the basis of the results, there is no reason to expect modules based on ESS to differ from other commercial modules based on poly-Si. ESS is therefore shown to be a viable alternative to conventional poly-Si, but with the additional benefit of lowering specific energy use and cost per Wp.