Method for improving the performance of a heterojunction solar cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11588071-B2
Application number	US-201917287966-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2019
Priority date	Oct 24, 2018
Publication date	Feb 21, 2023
Grant date	Feb 21, 2023

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method for rapidly treating a heterojunction solar cell fabricated using a crystalline silicon wafer doped exclusively with n-type dopants to improve surface passivation and carrier transport properties using the following steps: providing a heterojunction solar cell; the solar cell having an n-type silicon substrate exclusively doped with n-type dopants with a concentration higher than 1×1014 cm−3 and a plurality of metallic contacts; illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell for a period of less than 5 minutes and at a temperature between 200° C. and 300° C. with light having an intensity of at least 2 kW/m2 and a wavelength such that the light is absorbed by the surface portion and generates electron-hole pairs in the solar cell. The step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell is such that less than 0.5 kWh/m2 of energy is transferred to the surface portion and a temperature of the surface portion increases at a rate of at least 10° C./s for a period of time during illumination.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for improving the performance of an n-type heterojunction solar cell comprising:
providing a heterojunction solar cell; the solar cell having an n-type silicon substrate exclusively doped with n-type dopants with a concentration higher than 1×10 14 cm −3 and a plurality of metallic contacts;
illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell for a period of less than 5 minutes and at a temperature between 200° C. and 300° C. with light having an intensity of at least 2 kW/m 2 and a wavelength such that the light is absorbed by the surface portion and generates electron-hole pairs in the solar cell;
wherein the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell is such that less than 0.5 kWh/m 2 of energy is transferred to the surface portion and a temperature of the surface portion increases at a rate of at least 10° C./s for a period of time during illumination.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell with light is such that an excess carrier concentration within the solar cell is at least 1×10 16 cm −3 during illumination.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wavelength of the light is such that absorption in the plurality of metallic contacts is higher than absorption in the silicon substrate.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising varying the intensity of illumination to modulate the temperature of the device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell is performed so that the exposed portion is rapidly heated to a pre-determined temperature by using a higher illumination intensity.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the illumination intensity is higher than 5 kW/m 2 ; or
the illumination intensity is higher than 20 kW/m 2 .

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the illumination intensity is higher than 5 kW/m 2 for less than 6 minutes; or
the illumination intensity is higher than 20 kW/m2 for less than 90 seconds.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the illumination intensity is higher than 100 kW/m 2 for less than 18 seconds; or
the illumination intensity is higher than 200 kW/m 2 for less than 9 seconds.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the illumination intensity is higher than 50 kW/m 2 for a period of time between 0.1 seconds and 9 seconds.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the wavelength of the light is between 700 nm and 1100 nm; or
the wavelength of the light is between 800 nm and 1000 nm.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising actively cooling the solar cell during illumination when the illumination intensity is above 4 kW/m 2 .

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising actively cooling the solar cell from a temperature in the range of 200° C.-300° C. to a temperature at least 50° C. lower with a cooling rate of at least 10° C./s.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the solar cell is cooled with a cooling rate of at least 20° C./s.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the solar cell is cooled to a temperature below 150° C.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising pre-heating the device to a temperature of at least 100° C. using infra-red light.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell is performed at a temperature of 210° C.-295° C.; or
the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell is performed at a temperature of 220° C.-290° C.; or
the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell is performed at a temperature of 230° C.-280° C.; or
the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell is performed at a temperature of 240° C.-270° C.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the illuminated portion has an area of more than 10 cm 2 ; or
the illuminated portion has an area of more than 100 cm 2 .

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the illuminated portion comprises a rear surface of the device.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the illuminated portion comprises a rear and a front surface of the device.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell with light is performed at a temperature above 250° C. for a duration of less than 30 seconds; or
the step of illuminating a surface portion of the solar cell with light is performed at a temperature above 250° C. for a duration of less than 10 seconds.

Assignees

• Newsouth Innovations Pty Ltd

Inventors

• Hallam Brett
• Wright Matthew
• Kim Moonyong
• Chen Daniel

Classifications

• H10P72/0436

  mainly by radiation · CPC title

• H10P95/90

  Thermal treatments, e.g. annealing or sintering · CPC title

• H10P34/00

  Irradiation with electromagnetic or particle radiation of wafers, substrates or parts of devices · CPC title

• H10F10/165

  the heterojunctions being Group IV-IV heterojunctions, e.g. Si/Ge, SiGe/Si or Si/SiC photovoltaic cells · CPC title

• H10F71/129

  Passivating · CPC title