화학공학소재연구정보센터
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol.186, 373-377, 2018
Impact of copper on light-induced degradation in Czochralski silicon PERC solar cells
Both multicrystalline and Czochralski (Cz) silicon substrates are known to suffer from various mechanisms of light-induced degradation (LID), including copper-related LID (Cu-LID). Past studies on Cu-LID have mostly been performed on unprocessed wafers, omitting the impact of the solar cell process on the copper distribution. Here, we carefully contaminate Cz-substrates of different quality with different amounts of copper and process the substrates into complete industrial Cz-Si PERC solar cells, reaching a comprehensive mapping of the impact of Cu-LID for the PV industry. The results show that both the copper contamination level and Cz crystal quality are critical factors affecting the extent of Cu-LID. Most importantly, we show that copper can result in significant concentrations in the bulk of the finished PERC cells after being exposed to only trace surface contamination. Consequently, even a small local copper contamination area (similar to 3-4 cm(2)) is sufficient to induce strong LID in the full-sized (156 x 156 mm(2)) cell parameters, resulting e.g. in similar to 7% relative efficiency loss during light soaking. The corresponding short circuit current density decreases by up to a factor of two in the contaminated areas.