Sebastian Joos

State-of-the-Art Industrial Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract The very dynamic growth of the photovoltaic (PV) market over the past decades is mainly based on fabrication of crystalline Si solar cells in industrial mass production. In this contribution, the fabrication process as currently used for most of the industrially produced solar cells is described and discussed. Emphasis is laid on the development and optimization of different processing steps being part of the so-called industrial standard process based on p-type crystalline Si and a firing through SiN x :H process using screen-printing metallization technology. Although excellent review articles on industrial processing of crystalline Si solar cells already exist, a more complete overview is provided, with latest developments added. Over the past 10–20 years the standard industrial solar cell process followed in general an evolutionary route, allowing for higher conversion efficiency and lower costs per generated Watt peak, reducing levelized costs of electricity for PV.