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PIERS Proceedings, Suzhou, China, September 1216, 2011

780

17.9% Efficiency Silicon Solar Cells by Using Spin-on Films


Processes
Yi-Yu Lee, Wen-Jeng Ho, Jhih-Kai Syu, Quan-Ru Lai, and Cheng-Ming Yu
Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology
1, Sec. 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Rd., Taipei 106, Taiwan

Abstract We investigated the phosphorus diffusion process by using the spin-on film (SOF)
and optimized rapid temperature annealing (RTA) techniques on single crystalline p-Si wafer
to form a high-quality thin n+ -Si emitter. We also studied a broad-band low-reflectance multilayer (SiO2 /TiO2 /TiO2 ) AR-coating by using the SOF process. Furthermore, we successfully
integrated both SOF processes for fabricating an n+ -p Si solar cell with excellent photovoltaic
performances. The improved performances show that Voc of 0.56 V, Isc of 5.35 mA, F F of 78.46%,
and of 17.91% are obtained.
1. INTRODUCTION

The high qualify Shallow n+ -emitter is one of the most important requirements in the fabrication of
photovoltaic devices. Usually, diffusion process is accomplished by heat treatment in a conventional
furnace at temperatures above 900 C for times ranging from minutes to hours [1]. POCl3 diffusion
in high temperature furnace diffusion has been reported in the previous study and in Si solar cell
fabrication. Recently, using rapid thermal annealing (RTA) method for forming a shallow junction
with a doped spin-on film has been reported in the shallow junction devices.
Anti-reflection coating is the function layer for reducing the light reflection at the air-semiconductor
interface, which can use to improve the efficiency of solar cell. A common method is used a singlelayer with a thickness of quarter-wavelength for antireflection coating [24]. However, the conventional AR-coating is effective only for a specific wavelength, and with a narrow low-reflection
spectrum.
In this paper, the spin-on process for phosphorus diffusion and low reflection AR-coating are in
depth study for solar cell fabrication. The quality of phosphorus-diffusion layer, the broad-band
low-reflection spectrum of AR-coating, and the performance of the fabricated n+ -p Si solar cell
were characterization, respectively.
2. EXPERIMENT

The wafers used in the experiment are with 525 m thick, (100) oriented, resistivity in 1 10 -cm,
p-Si (boron doped). The samples are 1 1 cm2 in size and the individual cell area is 0.1296 cm2 .
The phosphorus-doped source embodies the dopant concentration of 5 1020 cm3 . After standard
RCA cleaning, the samples are firstly coated with the phosphorus diffusion source by using the
spin-on technique. The samples are spun at a speed of 6000 rpm for 20 s, followed by a prebaking
at 200 C for 5 min and at 400 C for 10 min on the hot plate. Then the sample was hold in RTA
chamber at 900 C for 2 min for a diffusion process [5]. After phosphorus diffusion, four independent
regions were from by isolation etching. Next, an 200 nm Al-film was evaporated onto the back side
and then annealed at 450 C as the back side electrode. Subsequently, the front electrode of Ti/Al
(20/200 nm) film was formed by E-GUN evaporating and lifts-off processes, as show in Figure 1.
Finally, SiO2 /TiO2 /TiO2 multi-layer was deposited by spin-on film process on the surface of cell.
The formation of multi-layer process can be categorized to three steps: step 1: spin a TiO2 film
(43.6 nm) with a speed of 8000 rpm for 40 s and then baking at 300 C for 30 min, step 2: spin a
second TiO2 film (49.6 nm) with a speed of 7000 rpm for 40 s and then baking at 250 C for 15 min,
step 3: spin a SiO2 film (238.3 nm) upon second TiO2 layer with a speed of 2000 rpm for 40 s and
then baking at 200 C for 15 min, the cells with 3-layer AR-coating as show in Figure 2.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 3 shows the sheet resistance (Rs ) of n+ -Si as a function of diffusion temperature, which the
diffusion time is at 210 min and in N2 environment. The sheet resistance gives an estimation of
the dopant element activation level. However, Rs values decreases with an increase in the diffusion
temperature as shown in Figure 3. The behavior of the diffusion and subsequent activation of

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Suzhou, China, Sept. 1216, 2011

781

Figure 1: The schematic diagram of the fabricated


solar cell.

Figure 2: The schematic diagram of cell with 3layers AR-coating.

Figure 3: Sheet resistance versus RTA temperature.

Figure 4: n+ -p Si diodes dark I-V curves of different


diffusion process temperature.

Table 1: Performance parameter of solar cell without AR-coating.

Figure 5:
coating.

Sample

Voc (V)

Isc (mA)

F F (%)

Rs ()

Rsh ()

(%)

Si-1

0.54

3.83

77

9.34

18777

12.01

Si-2

0.54

3.78

76

9.3

33638

11.59

Si-3

0.54

3.57

69

8.75

25401

11.04

Si-4

0.54

3.67

73

7.56

32837

11.57

Photo I-V of solar cell without AR-

Figure 6: Reflectance spectrum of 3-layers ARcoating.

phosphorus atoms in p-type silicon were important factor for device fabrication. Thus, RTA seems
to be very efficient for a shallow diffusion for using a spin-coating with a thin high-dopant layer [6, 7].

PIERS Proceedings, Suzhou, China, September 1216, 2011

782

Table 2: The parameter of solar cell without and with AR coating.


Sample

Voc
(V)

Isc
(mA)

Jsc
(mA/cm2 )

FF
(%)

Rs
()

Rsh
()

(%)

Si-1
(without
AR-coating)

0.54

3.83

29.55

77

9.34

18777

12.01

Si-1
(AR-coating
with spinning
SiO2 /TiO2 /TiO2 )

0.56

5.35

41.28

78.64

8.45

25953

17.91

Figure 7: The illuminated I-V curve of without and with AR coating.

Four different diffusion temperatures are choose to make p-n diode, in this study. Figure 4 shows
the I-V curve of the n+ -p diodes. The best I-V curve of 900 C for 2 min was obtained due to the
I-V characteristics more similar to the ideal p-n diode [8]. The performance parameter of solar
cells without AR-coating is listed in Table 1. The illumined I-V curve of Si solar cells without
AR-coating is shown in Figure 5. Under AM1.5G, 25 C, the cell without AR-Coating show that
the open circuit voltage (Voc ) of 0.54 V, short-circuit current (Isc ) of 3.83 mA, fill factor (FF) of
77%, and conversion efficiency () of 12.01% are presented. The reflectance spectrum of triple-layer
AR-coating is shown in Figure 6. At wavelength from 500 nm to 650 nm, the reflectance of 5% is
achieved. We applied such scheme on ARC solar cell to enhance the devices performances. The
improved performances of cell with spin-on triple-layer (SiO2 /TiO2 /TiO2 ) AR-coating show that
Voc of 0.56 V, Isc of 5.35 mA, FF of 78.46%, and increased form 12.01 to 17.91% were obtained, as
listed in Table 2. Finally, the measured I-V curve of cell without AR-coating and with AR-coating
is also shown in Figure 7. Efficiency enhancement of 49% in this work was achieved due to the best
diffusion processing [9] and high quality 3-layer AR-coating.
4. CONCLUSION

We have successfully fabricated n+ -p Si solar cell by spin-on processes for Phosphorus diffusion
and 3-layer AR-coating. Short-circuit of 5.35 mA, open circuit voltage of 0.56 V, and fill factor
of 78.64% are obtained. The results of the experimental show a cell with multi-layer AR-coating
that the increasing in the short current from 3.83 mA to 5.35 mA, the efficiency increasing in from
12.01% to 17.91% are obtained.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank the financial support from the National Science Council under
Grant NSC 99-2221-E-027-050.
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Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Suzhou, China, Sept. 1216, 2011

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