Boron liquid solution deposited by spray method for p-type emitter formation in crystalline Si solar cells

This paper reports the fabrication of n-type crystalline Si based solar cell using boron liquid solution (BLS) deposited by spray method for p-type emitter formation. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used for the analysis of surface composition and electronic states of elements at the glass layer of dopant (GLD) obtained from BLS. The investigation of the borosilicate glass layer (BSG) created on a base of GLD during diffusion process were carried out by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The diffusion profiles were determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and electrochemical capacitance-voltage (EC-V) techniques, whereas the solar cells were characterized by the light current-voltage (I-V) and spectral measurements. The influence of a doping process on a minority carrier lifetime of the Si wafers was detected by quasi-steady-state photoconductance technique. Application of the elaborated BSL allowed to obtain the p-type Si emitters from BSG layer which exhibits unproblematic etching behaviour after diffusion process and final fabrication of the solar cells with the fill factor of 74% and photoconversion efficiency of 13.04 %. The elaborated BLS is a source which offers an attractive practicable alternative to form emitters on the n-type Si substrate.