Solar cells with efficiencies above 21% processed from Czochralski grown silicon

Czochralski-Si (Cz-Si) of several manufacturers and with resistivities ranging from 1 to 13 /spl Omega/cm were processed into solar cells with efficiencies higher than 20% (AM1.5) using the LBSF/PERL processing sequence. The highest efficiency was 21.7%. The investigation of high efficiency Cz-Si solar cells was augmented by computer simulation and a study of the carrier lifetime before and after processing. A small degradation of solar cell performance in the lower resistivity material is discussed. Furthermore, a much simpler processing sequence is presented revealing efficiencies well above 19% on Cz-silicon and 21% on float zone-silicon.