Mechanically grooved silicon solar cells with buried contact copper electrode were attempted. In order to groove a simple mechanical grooving system was home-made, in which synchronous motors in hard disc driver (HDD), audio amplifier, signal generator were used. For the anti-reflection films sputtering condition for SiN_x films was optimized. With increasing input power, pressure, index of refraction of the films increased so that a very low etching rate of 0.8 nm/min could be achieved with a condition of Ar and N₂ flow rate of 5 SCCM, input power of 300 W and sputtering pressure of 1 × 10^-2 torr. Annealing condition for the formation of nickel silicie from electroless plated Ni-P layer was optimized as well as plating condition of copper electrode. However, the conversion efficiency of the BCSC in this study is 3.6% which is unexpectedly small. It seems that the reason for the low efficiency is due to short circuit forming in the lancet of the pyramid.

Date Published: 13 September 2011
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8110, Thin Film Solar Technology III, 81100W (13 September 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.894409

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8110:
Thin Film Solar Technology III
Louay A. Eldada, Editor(s)