Low-Ohmic Contacting of Laser-Doped p-Type Silicon Surfaces with Pure Ag Screen-Printed and Fired Contacts

The state-of-the-art low-ohmic electrical contacting of highly boron-doped silicon surfaces is based on the use of screen-printed and fired silver-aluminum (Ag-Al) contacts. For these contacts, metal crystallites with depths of up to a few microns are observed at the interface. For screen-printed and fired Ag contacts on phosphorus-doped surfaces, the observed crystallite depths are much smaller. In this work, low-ohmic electrical contacting of local laser-doped p-type silicon surfaces with commercial pure Ag screen-printing paste are demonstrated. The doping layer is based on the pPassDop approach, which serves as a passivation layer on the rear side of p-type silicon solar cells. The specific contact resistances are measured down to 1mcm(2) for p-type doping densities of about 3x10(19)cm(-3) at the silicon surface and finger widths of around 55m. Microstructure analysis reveals the formation of numerous small Ag crystallites at the interface with penetration depths of less than 80nm. A first implementation of the pPassDop approach on 6-inch p-type Cz-Si bifacial solar cells using solely Ag contacts on both sides results in a peak front side energy conversion efficiency of 19.1%, measured on a black chuck with contact bars on both sides.