Abstract
M.Sc.
The efficiency of commercial polycrystalline silicon solar cells is currently 12% and 15% in the case of single crystalline cells. It is possible to lose about half of the open circuit voltage due to inferior contacts on the cell. It is thus clear that inferior contacts can seriously impede the relative low efficiency and care should be taken to make good ohmic contacts.
Experiments were done to evaluate the influence of several factors on the quality and stability of the contacts. 1 C2•cm p-type polycrystalline silicon and 3 52.cm n-type single crystalline silicon were primarily used for these experiments. Results of molybdenum contacts on n-type silicon are also presented and the problems with silver epoxy contacts are discussed.
It was found that aluminium contacts on p-type polycrystaline silicon improve with temperature and time, while those on single crystaline n-type degrade with temperature and time. These changes are already present at room temperature and are attributed to solid state diffusion of the aluminium into the silicon. This results in a p + layer. In the case of contacts on p-type, the behaviour is that of a Schottky diode. After the solid state diffusion, it becomes possible for the charges to quantum mechanically tunnel through the p+ layer. This results in an improvement of the contact. The contacts on n-type however, are ohmic just after evaporation. Similar to the p-material, the p+ layer causes a p+-n-junction with the depletion layer primarily in the n-type material. This causes a degradation in the contact quality.
It is possible to achieve good quality contacts on polycrystaline p-type material, by annealing the contacts above 500°C for one minute. These contacts however, are non-ideal. SEM photographs show that the silicon surface is crated by pits due to solid state diffusion. It is only at these pits that conduction through the Schottkybarrier is possible. Since the area of the pits constitutes only a portion of the total area, only a portion of the surface will partake in conduction. Contact resistance is always present. For pm sized contacts on integrated circuits, the spesific resistance is of the order of 10 -6 Q.cm2. Contacts on solar cells, however, are of millimetre dimensions and the spesific resistance can be four orders of magnitude larger. The conduction through the surface can be modelled as conduction through a surface that is constituted of a mixture of minute ohmic and diode surfaces.