Enhanced Passivation Properties of a-Si:H and Reactive ITO Sputtering for SHJ Solar Cells

Enhancement of the conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells is crucial for the improvement of renewable electricity resources. The device properties such as minority carrier lifetime, series resistance, contact resistance and optical properties should be improved simultaneously to achieve higher photo conversion efficiencies. We use industry compatible processes flow to fabricate large-area silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells combined with reactive ITO sputtering. The passivation properties of a-Si:H layer was improved by hydrogen plasma treatment resulting in a lower interface defect density and higher “H” content in the deposited thin a-Si:H layer. Moreover, carrier density, mobility and resistivity of ITO layer was analyzed and the best deposition condition of ITO is integrated to SHJ solar cell process sequence. Contact resistivity between ITO and low temperature silver paste was decreased by optimized drying and curing temperature parameters. In large-area SHJ solar cell, we have achieved conversion efficiency of 20.8%.