Understanding the influence of tellurium oxide in the front silver paste on the homogenous high sheet resistance emitter

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Bezawada, N. S. N. (2016). Understanding the influence of tellurium oxide in the front silver paste on the homogenous high sheet resistance emitter. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

To reduce the cost of solar electricity requires highly efficient solar cells. However, the manufacturing of high efficiency solar cells does not match up with the cost. The higher the efficiency, the higher the cost. Thus, the high throughput technology such as screen printing, which dominates the manufacturing of solar cell needs to be reinvented to accommodate high efficiency at the same cost. This requires the use of transparent emitters for high short circuit current, open circuit voltage, and fill factor, which multiply to give the efficiency. Fill factor is often a problem with such lowly doped emitters, thus, a compatible front Ag paste must be formulated. This thesis, therefore, investigate such front Ag paste containing TeO2 as compared to other pastes. It was found out that both the contact and gridline resistances for the TeO2 containing paste are lower than the commercial counterpart paste. This is because, the TeO2 functions as a catalyst, which decreases the viscosity of the molten glass during contact firing, leading to uniform etching of the underlying antireflection coating. Thus, large contact is formed, as well as highly conductive gridlines. The concentration of TeO2 was found to be below the detection limit of EDS, as there was no trace of Te or its oxide after contact firing.

Details
Author

Bezawada, Naga Sai Nirupama

Title

Understanding the influence of tellurium oxide in the front silver paste on the homogenous high sheet resistance emitter

Physical Description

1 online resource (53 pages) : PDF

Date

2016

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

To reduce the cost of solar electricity requires highly efficient solar cells. However, the manufacturing of high efficiency solar cells does not match up with the cost. The higher the efficiency, the higher the cost. Thus, the high throughput technology such as screen printing, which dominates the manufacturing of solar cell needs to be reinvented to accommodate high efficiency at the same cost. This requires the use of transparent emitters for high short circuit current, open circuit voltage, and fill factor, which multiply to give the efficiency. Fill factor is often a problem with such lowly doped emitters, thus, a compatible front Ag paste must be formulated. This thesis, therefore, investigate such front Ag paste containing TeO2 as compared to other pastes. It was found out that both the contact and gridline resistances for the TeO2 containing paste are lower than the commercial counterpart paste. This is because, the TeO2 functions as a catalyst, which decreases the viscosity of the molten glass during contact firing, leading to uniform etching of the underlying antireflection coating. Thus, large contact is formed, as well as highly conductive gridlines. The concentration of TeO2 was found to be below the detection limit of EDS, as there was no trace of Te or its oxide after contact firing.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Electrical engineering
Renewable energy sources

Degree

M.S.

Keywords

Contact Firing
EDS
Emitters
Solar Cells

Subject Area

Electrical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Ebong, Abasifreke

Committee Members

Stokes, Ed
Zhang, Yong

Degree Note

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2016.

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Rights Holder Information

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Identifier

Bezawada_uncc_0694N_11298

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1725