Laser isolation of shunted regions in industrial solar cells

Abstract

Abstract This paper provides proof of concept for a technique that uses laser‐ablated grooves to locally isolate shunted regions in industrial silicon solar cells. The shunted regions are located using photoluminescence imaging and then isolated from the active cell area with a Nd:YAG laser. By applying this shunt isolation technique, we demonstrate that a strongly shunted 9·6% efficient industrial screen‐printed solar cell could be recovered to 13·3%. With further development this technique could be applied in an industrial environment to mitigate yield losses and improve average cell efficiencies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.