This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 102115465, filed on Apr. 30, 2013. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
1. Field of the Present Disclosure
The present invention relates to an optoelectronic device and the manufacturing method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a manufacturing method of a silicon solar cell and a silicon solar cell.
2. Description of Related Art
As solar energy is a kind of unlimited and non-polluting energy, it has been highly expected as the substitute solution of current petrol energy which has long suffered from pollution and shortage problems. Solar cells can directly convert solar energy to electrical energy and has drawn more and more attentions these years.
The solar cell is a photovoltaic device. The typical structure of a solar cell can be divided into four parts: a silicon substrate, a P—N diode, an anti-reflection layer and a plurality of metal electrodes. The general principle of the solar cell is to convert solar energy into electron-hole pairs whose driving force is provided through the P—N diode, and then output electrical energy by the conduction of positive and negative electrodes.
Passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) type solar cells with high efficiency have been proposed, of which the dielectric layer is mainly formed on the backside of the substrate, and a part of the back electrode form a eutectic layer with the silicon substrate via the opening of the dielectric layer, and the performance of the solar cell using this structure can be improved.
Specifically, the conventional PERC solar cell is usually fabricated by forming the dielectric layer on the back surface, removing a part of the dielectric layer to form an opening without damaging the surface of the silicon substrate, followed by forming the back electrode on the dielectric layer and forming a eutectic layer within the opening of the dielectric layer. However, if the parameters for removing the dielectric layer, e.g., depth, etc., are not properly controlled during the process of forming the opening in the dielectric layer, the eutectic layer formed in the opening will be unstable and even voids will be produced, thereby affecting the overall efficiency and yield of the solar cell.
The present invention provides a manufacturing method for a silicon solar cell, which offers larger process windows for manufacturing silicon solar cells with high conversion efficiency.
The present invention provides a manufacturing method of a silicon solar cell comprising the following steps. A silicon substrate formed with a doped layer on the light receiving surface of the silicon substrate is provided. Later, a first dielectric layer is formed on the light receiving surface and a second dielectric layer is formed on the rear surface of the silicon substrate opposite to the light receiving surface. By locally removing the second dielectric layer and removing a portion of the underlying silicon substrate with a laser, a patterned second dielectric layer and at least one groove are formed. The patterned second dielectric layer exposes the at least one groove. A first electrode composition is formed on the light receiving surface and a second electrode composition is formed on the rear surface. The second electrode composition is filled into the at least one groove. After performing a high temperature process to co-firing the silicon substrate and the first electrode composition as well as the second electrode composition, a first electrode is formed on the light receiving surface and a second electrode is formed on the rear surface.
The present invention provides a manufacturing method of a silicon solar cell comprising the following steps. A silicon substrate formed with a doped layer on the light receiving surface of the silicon substrate is provided. Later, a first dielectric layer is formed on the light receiving surface and a second dielectric layer is formed on the rear surface of the silicon substrate opposite to the light receiving surface. By locally removing the second dielectric layer and removing a portion of the underlying silicon substrate with a laser, a patterned second dielectric layer and at least one groove are formed. The patterned second dielectric layer exposes the at least one groove. A first electrode composition is formed on the light receiving surface and a second and a third electrode compositions are formed on the rear surface. The second electrode composition is filled into the at least one groove. After performing a high temperature process to co-firing the silicon substrate and the first, second and third electrode compositions, a first electrode is formed on the light receiving surface and a second and a third electrode are formed on the rear surface.
As embodied and broadly described herein, the step of forming the doped layer further comprises forming a high-concentration doped region and a low-concentration doped region in different regions of the doped layer on the light receiving surface. Specifically, the high-concentration doped region is formed on a region of the light receiving surface corresponding to the first electrode and the sheet resistance of the high-concentration doped region is equal to or less than 70 ohm/square. The low-concentration doped region is located on a region of the light receiving surface outside the region corresponding to the first electrode, and the sheet resistance of the low-concentration doped region is greater than 70 ohms/square. In one embodiment, the high-concentration doped region and the low-concentration doped region are included on regions of the light receiving surface outside the region corresponding to the first electrode.
As embodied and broadly described herein, the width of the at least one groove is greater than 5 microns and the depth of the at least one groove is greater than 0.5 microns. In addition, after co-firing of the second electrode composition and the silicon substrate, the bottom contour of the at least one groove has an approximately symmetrical or substantially symmetrical shape along the thickness direction of the silicon substrate.
As embodied and broadly described herein, the step of forming a first electrode composition on the light receiving surface comprises screen printing a silver paste on the light receiving surface. The step of forming a second electrode composition on the rear surface comprises screen printing an aluminum paste on the rear surface. Additionally, the manufacturing method may further comprise screen printing a silver paste on the rear surface to form a third electrode composition on the rear surface. In this case, the aluminum paste is screen printed into at least a portion of the at least one groove.
As embodied and broadly described herein, the patterned second dielectric layer on the silicon substrate has at least one opening, and the pattern of the at least one opening of the second dielectric layer includes a line, a dot, a dashed line, a circular line, a polygon, an irregular shape or combinations thereof. Also, a cross-sectional shape of the at least one groove along the thickness direction of the silicon substrate includes a square, a triangle, a circle, an oval, an arc, a multi-arc-shape, a polygon, an irregular shape or combinations thereof.
Also, the present invention provides a silicon solar cell fabricated by the manufacturing methods mentioned above.
The present invention also provides a silicon solar cell, comprising a silicon substrate, a first dielectric layer, a patterned second dielectric layer, a first electrode and a second electrode. The silicon substrate is formed with a doped layer on the light receiving surface and a recess on the rear surface opposite to the light receiving surface. The recess along the thickness direction of the silicon substrate has an approximately symmetrical or substantially symmetrical contour. The first dielectric layer is disposed on the light receiving surface of the silicon substrate. The patterned second dielectric layer is located on the rear surface of the silicon substrate opposite to the light receiving surface, and the patterned second dielectric layer exposes the recess. The first electrode is located on the light receiving surface. The second electrode is located on the rear surface. The structure of the eutectic product formed from co-firing between the second electrode and the silicon substrate, has a shape whose central depth is smaller than its marginal depth.
As embodied and broadly described herein, the doped layer further comprises at least a high-concentration doped region and a low-concentration doped region in different regions of the doped layer on the light receiving surface.
By using the manufacturing method of silicon solar cell(s) provided in the present invention, the reaction area between the back electrode and the silicon substrate is increased, and the eutectic structure without voids is generated due to sufficient reaction between the back electrode and the silicon substrate. Also, the local back surface field of the silicon solar cell has a larger thickness, thus improving the efficiency of silicon solar cells. Furthermore, the edge(s) of the generated local back surface field of the silicon solar cell is relatively uniform, which further enhances the efficiency of the silicon solar cell. Further, since the laser is used in the present invention to locally remove the second dielectric layer and a portion of the underlying silicon substrate so as to form the groove, the groove formation is less likely to be affected by the surface morphology of the silicon substrate and the thickness of the dielectric layer. Hence, the manufacturing method of the silicon solar cell in the present invention has a larger process window, and high performance silicon solar cells may be produced at lower costs.
In order to make the aforementioned and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below. It is to be understood that both of the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of this disclosure as claimed.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of this disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of this disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of this disclosure.
Specifically, as shown in
On the other hand, on the rear surface 210B of the silicon solar cell 200 of the present embodiment, a back electrode 250 constituted by the second electrode 250A (aluminum electrode) and the third electrode 250B (silver electrode) and a patterned second dielectric layer 270 between the silicon substrate 210 and the back electrode 250 are included. As shown in
Particularly, the silicon solar cell 200 of the present embodiment may be produced by the manufacturing method of the silicon solar cell in the present invention, the extent and area of reaction between the second electrode 250A and the silicon substrate 210 can be enlarged for better formation of the eutectic layer 252, thereby increasing the efficiency of the silicon solar cell 200. In addition, the local back surface field 290 of the silicon solar cell 200 is thereby formed with greater thickness and better uniformity, and the special contour is thus formed as shown in
Referring to step S1 in
It is noted that, in one embodiment, the doping concentration of the doped layer 220 formed on the light receiving surface 210R of the silicon substrate 210 may be the same. In another embodiment, the high-concentration doped region 220H and low-concentration doped region 220L can be formed on different regions of the light receiving surface 210R of the silicon substrate 210.
Specifically, as shown in
By forming the low-concentration doped region 220L and high-concentration doped region 220H in different regions of the doped layer 220 on the light receiving surface 210R, the conversion efficiency of the silicon solar cell 200 can be further improved. Specifically, considering the conversion efficiency of the silicon solar cell 200 having the doped layer 220 of the same doping concentration being set to 1, the conversion efficiency of the silicon solar cell 200 having the doped layer 220 with different doping concentrations, after normalization, is further increased by approximately 3%.
Next, referring to Step S2 in
Referring to Step S3 of
In particular, in the present embodiment, a laser L is used to locally remove the second dielectric layer 270 on the rear surface 210B and the underlying silicon substrate 210. The laser L, for example, possesses pulse width in the order of nanoseconds. In details, for the manufacturing method of the silicon solar cell 200 in the present invention, the energy of the laser L is employed to impact the second dielectric layer 270 and the underlying silicon substrate 210, which destructs the surface morphology of the silicon substrate 210 and forms the structure of the groove G in the thickness direction of the silicon substrate 210. In other words, the process window of the laser L is not limited by the surface morphology of the silicon substrate 210 or the thickness of the second dielectric layer 270. The laser L is different from those general lasers that merely remove the second dielectric layer 270 without damaging the surface of the silicon substrate (see Comparative Examples of
The groove G as shown in
Of course, the shape of the grooves G can be controlled by adjusting the process parameters of the laser L, so that the cross-sectional contour of the groove G along the thickness direction of the silicon substrate 210 may be shaped as a square, a triangle, a circle, an oval, an arc, a multi-arc-shape, a polygon, an irregular shape or combinations thereof. The scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. Further, the opening Op of the second dielectric layer 270 formed on the rear surface 210B of the silicon substrate 210 via the laser L may present the pattern shaped as lines, dots, dashed lines, circular lines, polygons, irregular shapes or combinations thereof, adjustable according to the product needs.
Then referring to Step S4 in
As shown in
Next, referring to Step S5 of
Further, as shown in
In addition, it is noted that the coverage area of the second dielectric layer 270 on the rear surface 210B of the silicon substrate 210 is in positive correlation with the survival rate of the carrier(s). In other words, the larger the coverage area of the second dielectric layer 270 is, the survival rate of the carrier(s) is prolonged because the recombination of the generated carrier may be minimized with the protection of the dielectric layer. On the other hand, the Al—Si eutectic area (typically the area of the opening Op of the second dielectric layer 270) associates with the collection rate of the carrier. In other words, when the opening Op of the second dielectric layer 270 is bigger, the generated carrier can be more effectively collected and drawn, thereby improving the carrier collection rate. According to the conventional art, since the rear surface area of the silicon substrate 210 is fixed, the sum of the coverage area of the second dielectric layer 270 and the opening area of the second dielectric layer 270 is also fixed. In conventional silicon solar cells technology, a tradeoff exists between the survival rate and the carrier collection rate of the carriers and two conditions cannot be satisfied at the same time.
However, for the silicon solar cell of the present invention, the groove G is deliberately formed in the silicon substrate 210 by the laser L. With the premise of not reducing the coverage area of the second dielectric layer 270, the two bottom surfaces Gs of the groove G in contact with the silicon substrate 210 increase the Al—Si reaction area of the eutectic layer 252, thereby enhancing the survival rate and the carrier collection rate of the carrier simultaneously and improving the conversion efficiency of the silicon solar cell.
In the present invention, the second dielectric layer 270 and the groove G are partially removed by the laser L. That is, there is no limitations that the energy of the laser L can not destroy the surface morphology of the silicon substrate 210 and the laser energy of the laser L may be strong enough to penetrate through the second dielectric layer 270 and completely remove the second dielectric layer 270 on the region reserved for groove(s) (to-be-formed groove), so that even the second dielectric layer 270 located on the edge(s) of the to-be-formed groove can also be completely removed without residues (compared with Comparative Example in
Referring to
In summary, by using the manufacturing method of silicon solar cell(s) provided in the present invention, the reaction area between the back electrode and the silicon substrate is increased, and voids generated in the junction (for example, aluminum silicon eutectic layer) of the back electrode and the silicon substrate are avoided. Also, full reaction occurs in the junction of the back electrode with the silicon substrate and the local back surface field of the silicon solar cell has a larger thickness, thus improving the efficiency of silicon solar cells. Furthermore, the edge(s) of the generated local back surface field of the silicon solar cell is relatively uniform, which further enhances the efficiency of the silicon solar cell. Further, since the laser L is used in the present invention to partially remove the second dielectric layer and a portion of the underlying silicon substrate so as to form the groove G, the groove formation is less likely to be affected by the surface morphology of the silicon substrate and the thickness of the dielectric layer. Hence, the manufacturing method of the silicon solar cell in the present invention has a larger process window, and high efficiency silicon solar cells may be produced at lower costs.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of this disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102115465 | Apr 2013 | TW | national |