18% Efficiency IBC Cell With Rear-Surface Processed on Quartz

Abstract

In order to relax the mechanical constraints of processing thin crystalline Si wafers into highly efficient solar cells, we propose a process sequence, where a significant part of the process is done on module level. The device structure is an interdigitated-back-contact cell with an amorphous silicon back surface field. The record cell reaches an independently confirmed efficiency of 18.4%. Although the device deserves further optimization, the result shows the compatibility of processing on glass with efficiencies exceeding 18%, which opens the door to a high-efficiency solar cell process where the potentially thin wafer is attached to a foreign carrier during the full processing sequence.