Advances in surface passivation of c-Si solar cells

In order to avoid an unacceptably large efficiency loss when moving towards thinner silicon materials, the near-term challenge in the c-Si PV industry is to implement an effective passivation method for both cell surfaces. This paper discussed several suitable passivation schemes available. While the efficiency potential of industrially produced thin film poly-Si cells on foreign substrates cannot yet reliably be predicted, it is clear that wafer-based c-Si solar cells will allow to maintain (or even improve) today’s efficiency levels while at the same time reducing the consumption of (expensive) crystalline silicon by up to 50 %. Given the trend towards these Si materials, the most promising surface passivation methods are identified to date. The key issues to be considered are…