Fabrication of interdigitated back-contact silicon heterojunction solar cells on a 53- mu m-thick crystalline silicon substrate by using the optimized inkjet printing method for etching mask formation

Inkjet-printing-based fabrication process of the interdigitated back-contact silicon heterojunction solar cells has the potential to reduce the manufacturing costs because of its low machine and material costs and its applicability to thinner fragile silicon substrates than 100 mu m. In this study, ink and printing parameters were investigated to obtain the desirable fine patterns and the resultant accuracy of the linewidths was less than + or -0.05 mm on a flat surface. The completed cells using inkjet-printing showed almost the same performance of that fabricated by photolithography. In addition, flexible and free-standing cell on a 53- mu m-thick Si substrate has been successfully fabricated.