Edge passivation of shingled poly-Si/SiO _x passivated contacts solar cells

Abstract

This work aims at the full recovery of efficiency losses induced by shingling double-side poly-Si/SiO _x passivated contacts crystalline silicon solar cells. It focuses on thermally-activated Aluminium Oxide (AlO _x ) layers elaborated by thermal Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) to passivate the edges of shingled cells cut by using the innovative “45° tilt squaring approach”. The whole procedure featuring high-temperature AlO _x annealing led to very low cut-related performance losses. Indeed, the efficiency and FF of the passivated shingled cells surpassed the values obtained for the as-cut shingles by 0.5% _abs and 2.6% _abs, respectively. Approaches for further improvements are also discussed, particularly to overcome the short-circuit current density decrease observed for passivated shingles.