The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a solar cell, in particular a solar cell having a rear side polysilicon passivating contact.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,633,006 discloses a method for manufacturing a photovoltaic cell, wherein atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition (APCVD) is used to deposit various layers on top of a tunnel oxide layer on a back side of a silicon substrate. The tunnel oxide layer is deposited on both sides of the substrate (using e.g. an ozone oxidation process), and the front side tunnel oxide layer is removed in a later process step. The various layers include a polysilicon layer on top of a tunnel oxide layer, followed by a layer of p-type dopant and a layer of undoped silicon oxide. Such APCVD depositions are advantageous when only applying layers to one side of the substrate, such as in manufacturing back side contact solar cells.
The present invention seeks to provide an improved method for manufacturing photovoltaic cells comprising rear side polysilicon passivating contacts. The method allows efficient use of manufacturing steps for protecting sides of the solar cell during various treatment steps.
According to the present invention, a method is provided for manufacturing a photovoltaic cell from a substrate having a front side, a back side and an edge (i.e. the circumferential side between front and back side). The method comprises providing a carrier selective contact structure of a first type (i.e. an electron or hole contact structure) on at least a part of the front side, and applying a stack having a thin oxide layer covered by a polysilicon layer. The stack is applied to the back side and the front side of the substrate, e.g. using a non-single sided process, and thus possibly also on the edge. At the back side the stack may be forming a rear side passivating contact structure of a second type (electron/hole). The method then further comprises removing (e.g. etching) the stack of thin oxide layer and polysilicon layer on the front side. It is noted that the term polysilicon as used herein encompasses amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon.
Through application of the thin oxide layer and polysilicon layer to the back side, edge as well as the front side of the substrate, a simplified manufacturing process is obtained wherein the applied stack acts as an effective barrier for subsequent treatment steps, in particular diffusion steps. Providing the stack of the present invention allows for a convenient “all side” manufacturing process, wherein an unwanted part of the stack on the front side of the substrate can be easily removed. It is noted that other elements, e.g. carbon, may be admixed to the polysilicon. The oxide layer may be a silicon oxide layer. Other elements, e.g. nitrogen, may be admixed to the oxide layer.
Another advantage of the method is that removal of the stack from the front side of the substrate allows to provide a good edge isolation, which in its turn minimizes reverse currents through the photovoltaic cell when in operation.
The present invention will be discussed in more detail below, with reference to the attached drawings, in which
When manufacturing a solar cell from a substrate through single sided processing steps, the manufacturing process must ensure that exposure of the other sides to the single sided processing step is minimized. In light of this there is a need for a method of manufacturing a solar cell that reduces the number of single sided processing steps and as such reduces the manufacturing complexity and associate costs for the solar cell.
The method of the present invention fulfils the above need by providing a method of manufacturing a solar cell by allowing for convenient “all side” processing steps whereby all sides of the substrate are subjected to the same treatment.
A doped polysilicon layer on top of a tunnel oxide layer forms a passivating contact on a silicon wafer, also known as a passivated contact or a carrier-selective contact. As is known in the art, contacts to crystalline silicon solar cells have to extract one type of carrier (electron or hole) and to at least a certain extent prevent the other type of carrier from entering the contact or recombining in the contact region (this prevention means there is some degree of passivation). That means that all contacts to solar cells advantageously are passivating or carrier-selective to some degree. The quality of a contact in preventing the other type of carrier from entering the contact and from recombining in the contact region is typically represented by the prefactor of the recombination current contributed by that contact Jo,c. A highly doped surface region of a wafer, that can e.g. be created by diffusion or implantation and anneal, and on which a metal contact is disposed, is one way of creating a contact for a solar cell that has some degree of carrier selectivity and passivation. This is the dominant way of creating contacts to crystalline silicon solar cells in the present industrial manufacturing of solar cells. A typical Jo,c of such a contact ranges from several hundred fA/cm2 to several thousand fA/cm2. Much better Jo,c of typically between one and several tens fA/cm2 can be obtained by disposing on a crystalline silicon wafer a highly doped polysilicon layer on top of a tunnel oxide layer (the tunnel oxide layer being between the wafer and the doped polysilicon). On the polysilicon a metallic contact can be disposed while retaining such a low Jo,c. In the following description the terminology passivating contact as well as carrier selective contact is used, both describing such and other variations for creating a contact for a crystalline silicon solar cell.
As depicted in
In an exemplary embodiment, the first polarity diffusion layer 4a may be a p+ diffusion layer. The p+ diffusion layer 4a may be envisaged as providing a p+ type front contact layer on the front side 4 of the substrate 2 as shown in
As mentioned, the method embodiments of the present invention allow for a first polarity diffusion layer 4a to be provided to the substrate 2 before the stack 10 of a thin oxide layer and polysilicon layer is applied. In an embodiment, providing such a first polarity diffusion layer 4a may be accomplished in an all side treatment step so that the first polarity diffusion layer 4a is provided on the back side 6, edge 8 as well on the front side 4. In case the first diffusion layer 4a is to be used as a front contact layer, for example, an embodiment is provided wherein the first polarity diffusion layer 4a on the back side 6 and the edge 8 of the substrate 2 is removed using a single side etching step. The result of this step is clearly depicted in
In an advantageous embodiment, the first polarity diffusion layer 4a is further removed from a rim surface part 5 of the front side 4 of the substrate 2 using a single side etching step. The rim surface part 5 may be seen as a circumferential edge of the front side 4. The main reason for also removing the rim surface part 5 of the front side 4 (e.g. with a (circumferential) width of at most 2 mm) is to provide an improved edge isolation with respect to a doped layer 12 which is provided later in the manufacturing process (see description of
The rim surface part 5 may further be passivated with a passivating coating such as a silicon oxide/silicon nitride stack or an aluminium oxide/silicon nitride stack.
According to the present invention, the method for manufacturing the solar cell comprises, as depicted in
Through the above method step an “all-side” treatment step is provided whereby all sides of the substrate 2 are subjected to the same treatment. Such an all-side treatment step may be performed in e.g. a single processing chamber for the substrate 2, so that manufacturing complexity is reduced as masking equipment or use of barriers for the substrate 2 are not needed.
Once the stack 10 of the thin oxide layer and polysilicon layer is deposited on all sides 4, 6, 8 of the substrate 2, the method according to this embodiment further comprises the step of subsequently providing a doped layer 12 on the back side 6, the (circumferential) edge 8 and the front side 4 of the substrate 2 through diffusion. The doped layer 12 may be formed by a doped polysilicon layer part of the stack 10. Instead of subsequently doping the polysilicon layer part of the stack 10, the polysilicon layer may also be doped in-situ during deposition of the entire stack 10. Instead of doping by diffusion or in-situ doping, also other doping methods such as implantation may be used (in case of implantation, for reasons of cost-effectiveness only the rear side part of stack 10 would be implanted).
In an embodiment the doped layer 12 may be a p+ or an n+ type doped layer 12. For example, in an embodiment a p+ doped layer 12 may be provided through boron diffusion. In a further embodiment an n+ doped layer 12 may be provided through phosphorous diffusion (e.g. using POCl3). The active dopant concentration of the doped polysilicon layer is in advantageous embodiments above 1E19 cm−3, more preferably about 1E20 cm−3 or higher, to obtain suitable carrier selective properties.
The method then proceeds with the step of removing the stack 10 of the thin oxide layer and polysilicon layer on the front side 4 (e.g. by an etching step). This step allows the front side of the substrate 2 to be exposed again and ready for further processing, e.g. making front contacts.
According to the present invention, the stack 10 of the thin oxide layer and polysilicon layer provides an excellent barrier so that one or more sides 4, 6, 8 of the substrate 2 can be subjected to one or more all side treatment steps such as an all side diffusion step after which unwanted parts of the resulting stack 10 can be removed at will.
As depicted in
As a further embodiment (shown in
Referring to
In an advantageous embodiment the method step of removing the stack 10 of the thin oxide layer and the polysilicon layer on the front side 4 may further comprise one or more selective etching steps. The selective etching steps will first etch the doped layer 12 and furthermore the polysilicon part of stack 10 and finally the thin oxide layer of the stack 10, at appropriate etching rates matching the material being etched. This method step allows efficient and complete removal of the stack 10 on the front side 4 whilst preserving quality of the first polarity diffusion layer 4a. The selective etching of an n-type doped layer 12 may for example be performed by an etchant comprising diluted TMAH (tetra methyl ammonium hydroxide), which etches a p-type doped layer 4a much more slowly, and also etches the thin oxide of stack 10 much more slowly.
During the step of providing the doped layer 12 to the stack 10 on the back side 6, edge 8 and the front side 4 through diffusion, it may happen that some diffusion occurs through the stack 10 into the first polarity diffusion layer 4a. For example, should the substrate 2 be provided with a p+ diffusion layer 4a, it may be possible that when applying an n+ doped layer 12 to the stack 10 some n+ diffusion or leakage occurs into the p+ diffusion layer 4a. In the event that some contamination occurs of the first polarity diffusion layer 4a, an embodiment is provided wherein the first polarity diffusion layer 4a remaining on the front side 4 after removal of the stack 10 of thin oxide layer and polysilicon layer on the front side 4, is subjected to a further etching step as shown in
All method steps prior to applying the stack 10 to the back side 6, edge 8 and front side 4 of the substrate 2 associated with
In the further embodiment step as shown in
The rim surface part 7 at the back side 6 of the substrate 2 may furthermore be passivated with a passivating coating such as a silicon oxide/silicon nitride stack or an aluminium oxide/silicon nitride stack.
Utilizing a rim surface part 7 of the back side 6 for electrical isolation (for which a width of at most 2 mm is sufficient) may also be possible for the embodiments as shown in e.g.
The barrier layer 9 may be obtained in a variety of ways. For example, in case a p+ type diffusion layer 4a is to be provided to the substrate 2 (see
Similar to the method steps associated with
In a further embodiment, the stack 10 of the thin oxide layer and the polysilicon layer may also be removed from the edge 8 of the substrate 2. In an alternative embodiment, an etch barrier (not shown) may be provided to the back side 6 and optionally to the edge 8, thereby preventing removal of the stack 10 from the back side 6 and edge 8, or only the back side 6, during e.g. an etching procedure. The etch barrier in this embodiment is similarly arranged on the back side 6 and edge 8 as depicted in
The processing steps resulting in the rim surface part 5 on the front side 4 and/or the rim surface part 7 on the back side 6, could be applied in further embodiments for processing a substrate 2, especially for solar cell applications, as the rim surface parts 5, 7 can advantageously provide a very good edge isolation. To this end, the method steps may comprise providing a stack 10 of a thin dielectric material layer and a polysilicon layer (amorphous or polycrystalline silicon) on (at least a part of) the front side 4 and (at least a part of) the back side 6, subsequently removing the polysilicon layer from the front side (and optionally including removing the polysilicon layer from a rim surface part 7 of the back side 6 to enhance isolation in the final device structure), and subsequently creating a selective carrier contact on the front side 4. The selective carrier contact on the front side 4 and the polysilicon layer on the back side 6 can have opposite polarities. One embodiment for the creation of the selective carrier contact on the front side 4 is by implantation of dopants. Another embodiment is to apply a diffusion barrier on the rear side 6, optionally including a rim surface part 5 on the front side 4, followed by diffusion of a dopant into at least the exposed part of the front side 4. Yet another embodiment comprises deposition of a material known for its selective carrier contacting properties on the front side 4, such as titanium oxide, molybdenum oxide, etc. Applying a material on the back side 6 as well as a rim surface part 5 of the front side 4 which masks or inhibits deposition of the front side selective carrier contact, e.g. applying a silylated surface to inhibit ALD, can be used to enhance isolation in an even further embodiment.
After the processing steps as described in this invention, the solar cells may be finished with passivation and anti-reflection coating layers, and metallisation layers and grids, as known in the art.
The present invention has been described above with reference to a number of exemplary embodiments as shown in the drawings. Modifications and alternative implementations of some parts or elements are possible, and are included in the scope of protection as defined in the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2018042 | Dec 2016 | NL | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/NL2017/050862 | 12/21/2017 | WO | 00 |