TOWARDS OPTIMUM WAFER THICKNESS, AREA THROUGHPUT, AVERAGE EFFICIENCY AND YIELD IN EFG WAFER AND SOLAR CELL PROCESSING

摘要

Recent work had demonstrated [1] that 200 μm thin EFG Si solar cells consume significantly less Si/W{sub}(peak) than mc-Si solar cells. A confirmed efficiency of 16.4% for a 96 cm{sup}2 Si solar cell with industrially relevant emitter and metallisation scheme indicated the potential to further reduce the Si consumption per W{sub}(peak). In this work systematic investigations with respect to the optimum wafer thickness and surface area and in particular influence of the edge regions of EFG-Si wafers and solar cells will be presented. Consequences of substrate dimensions on throughput, yield efficiency and cost will be considered. Background for this study is parallel work on the development of new EFG technology [2] expected to result in more freedom in selecting the wafer dimensions.