By Sven Kluska, Thibaud Hatt, Benjamin Grübel, Gisela Cimiotti, Christian Schmiga, Varun Arya, Bernd Steinhauser, Frank Feldmann, Jonas Bartsch, Baljeet Singh Goraya, Sebastian Nold, Andreas A. Brand, Jan Nekarda, Markus Glatthaar & Stefan W. Glunz, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Freiburg, Germany
Passivated-contact solar cell designs, such as TOPCon or silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJs), enable cell efficiencies greater than 24%, and are promising candidates for the next revolution in mass production after the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC). Plated metallization (Ni/Cu/Ag or Cu/Ag) fits well with new constraints on low-temperature processing and the combination of low material costs
and highly conductive bifacial metal grids for these types of solar cell.