Silver (Ag) is one of the most expensive materials used in the manufacture of silicon (Si) solar cells today as the front electrode. The current Si cell manufacturing cost from Si wafers is ~$0.10 per cell and Ag accounts for about half of that cost. Another key issue is the limited reserve of Ag on our planet, with a US Geological Survey estimated amount of 530,000 metric tons [1]. Even if the entire Ag reserve was used for cell manufacturing, we could only supply ~5% of the 2100 global energy demand [2]. Based on material cost, abundance, and resistivity, only two suitable replacements for Ag exist, Cu and Al. Al bears the advantage over Cu since it eliminates the need for a barrier layer such as Ni. Al is also less prone to oxidization often experienced by Cu. We reported light-induced Al electroplating on Si solar cells using a Lewis acidic chloroaluminate ionic liquid [3], demonstrating direct Al plating on Si without a seed layer.

This talk focuses on surface preparation and Al plating processes to promote strong adhesion and low contact resistance between plated Al and cell emitter. Sheet resistance and surface morphology of the emitter were monitored as a function of laser power for SiN_x removal. Electrochemical capacitance-voltage profiling determined the laser power at which the emitter surface dopant profiles were preserved. A process to remove laser damage and clean the Si surface after laser patterning was developed by etching Si in 1 wt% NaOH. It was found by atomic force microscopy that ~23 s was the minimum time to completely remove the original Si surface which was damaged and contaminated. Al deposits on substrates prepared by this surface cleaning process showed strong adherence in the Scotch tape test. Al plating was performed at different temperatures. The resulting film thickness and morphology were investigated with scanning electron microscopy. The lowest film resistivity was less than 8 µΩ-cm which was obtained at a plating temperature of 50°C and showed a grain size of 2–5 µm.

[1] U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries (2017).

[2] M. Tao, Terawatt Solar Photovoltaics: Roadblocks and Opportunities (Springer, London, 2014).

[3] L. Wang, W.-H. Huang, W. J. Shin, M. Tao, B. Deng, and D. Wang, J. Electrochem. Soc., 165, D381 (2018).