HIGH VOLUME MANUFACTURING OF HIGH EFFICIENCY CRYSTALLINE SILICON SOLAR CELLS WITH SHIELDED METAL CONTACTS

摘要

First Solar has launched mass production of high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells. The manufacturing sequence employs a new technology that eliminates recombination at the metal contacts. This "shielding" of the contacts allows a new degree of freedom for the metal grid design, i.e. the optimization is only a trade-off between shading and resistive losses. Contact recombination is so low that it doesn't need to be factored in anymore. In combination with a fine line copper metallization process sequence, median efficiencies over 21% are achieved on a 100 MW_p pilot line. 72-cell PV modules with standard soldering and interconnection technology have power bins (-0 to +5W) of 360 to 370 W_p.