Improvement on Electrical Properties of Screen-Printed Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells by Light-Induced Electroplating of Silver

In this paper, the improvement on electrical properties of screen-printed crystalline silicon solar cells by light-induced electroplating of silver is studied. Optical losses are analysed by the introduction of scale factor in the calculation. Electrical losses are mainly from the seed layer electrodes, top layer electrodes, the emitter, the base and the contact resistance between silicon and silver. Light-induced electroplating of silver is able to reduce the total power losses of screen-printed solar cells obviously by denser silver electrode. In experiment, the relative increments of I-V parameters as a function of electroplating time for crystalline silicon solar cells with 60μm, 75μm and 90μm wide seed layer electrodes are measured. After light-induced electroplating process, the cells efficiencies of 16.8%, 17.2% and 17.8% have reached on 60μm, 75μm and 90μm wide gridlines screen-printed solar cells, respectively. The calculated results and experimental data show good agreement. Due to the successful verification by comparing between numerical simulation and experimental data, the simulation results could be used to optimize the two-layer electrode structure and light-induced electroplating process.