The investigation of one step annealing for plated Ni/Cu contact solar cells

The silicon solar cells have been required low cost, low contact resistance and low shading loss for high efficiency with commercial processes. Contacts of commercial screen printed solar cells formed by Ag paste printed in spite of their high contact resistance and high shading loss. Ni and Cu metals of low cost have low contact resistance, loss shading loss and high conductivity. The purpose of this work was to provide one step annealing front metal contact process by an adapted plating stack of Ni/Cu/Ag. Generally, Ni silicide was formed by annealing process for low contact resistance and barrier to plated Cu atom diffusion. Ni and Cu metal contacts were formed by electroless plating and electroplating and one step was annealed by conventional furnace.The solar cell developed front metallization was characterized. It was achieved 2×2cm ², 17.18% of efficiency on crystalline silicon.