Emitter formation with boron diffusion from PECVD deposited boron-doped silicon oxide for high-efficiency TOPCon solar cells

We present a systematic study of emitter formation with dopant diffusion from boron (B)-doped hydrogenated silicon oxide (a-SiOx:H) deposited on textured n-type monocrystalline silicon (n-c-Si) wafers using a 13.56 MHz plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system. The B atoms in the a-SiOx:H are activated and diffused into the n-c-Si wafer during a high-temperature annealing to form a p/n junction for solar cell application. Afterward, the B-doped SiOx layer is removed by hydrofluoric acid selective etching to obtain a clean surface for the deposition of AlOx passivation and SiNx antireflection layers. With the optimization of the PECVD deposition and the following annealing/etching processes, the B diffused region with a sheet resistance of 60–100 Ω/sq and a junction depth of 1.2–1.5 μm is obtained. A champion implied open-circuit voltage (iVoc) of 705 mV and a single-side saturated recombination current density (J0,s) of 17.6 fA/cm2 are obtained from a double-sided B diffused sample after the passivation with an atomic-layer-deposition (ALD) AlOx. In addition, the contact resistivity (ρc) at the metal/emitter interface is lower than 5 mΩcm2, where the metal contact is a Ti/Pd/Ag tri-layer structure. All of the material properties meet the requirements of high-efficiency solar cell. With the optimized emitter in the front, we made a SiOx and heavily phosphorus-doped polycrystalline silicon carbide (n-poly-SiCx) stack on the rear surface to form tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells. The results show that the iVoc of semi-finished TOPCon solar cell before metallization is more than 725 mV. Finally, a TOPCon solar cell with an efficiency of 24.24% is obtained, which is comparable with the TOPCon solar cells with the industrial thermally diffused emitter.