Microstructural characterization and current conduction mechanisms of front-side contact of n-type crystalline Si solar cells with Ag/Al pastes

Recently, high efficiency n-type crystalline Si cells made with the screen printed Ag/Al metallization have received considerable attention. We report here our microstructural investigations of the critical interfacial region between the front-side contact and the Si wafer of n-type cells fired under progressively higher temperatures. Our study revealed that the key characteristic microstructures of the interfacial region changed from one with a large fraction of residual SiN, to one consisting of a thin glass layer with nano-Ag colloids, and finally to one decorated with Ag and Ag/Al crystallites attached to the emitter surface for cells with under-, optimally-, and over-fired conditions, respectively. We did not find any Al-Si eutectic layer on the emitter surface that would support a silicon dissolution and re-growth mechanism, which is operative in the back surface field formation process for the Al back contact of p-type industrial solar cells. The presence of the SiN antireflection coating has likely altered the chemistry between Si and Al significantly. The observed microstructures lead us to conclude that the main current conduction mechanism in optimally-fired n-type cells is tunneling through those areas of thin interfacial glass containing nano-Ag colloids. This mechanism is similar to the current conduction model we have proposed previously for optimally-fired p-type crystalline Si solar cells. We believe that the intrusion of Ag/Al (and/or Ag) crystallites into the p-Si emitter in over-fired cells is one of the major sources of metallization-induced recombination losses, which degrades cell performance.