EPJ Photovoltaics 15, 9 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2024002

Review

Wet chemical poly-Si(n) wrap-around removal for TOPCon solar cells

¹ Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Heidenhofstr. 2, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
² RENA Technologies GmbH, Höhenweg 1, 78148 Gütenbach, Germany

^* e-mail: katrin.krieg@ise.fraunhofer.de

Received: 14 July 2023
Accepted: 9 January 2024
Published online: 1 April 2024

Abstract

This work gives an overview on different technological solutions for polysilicon removal in industrial tunnel oxide passivated contact (i-TOPCon) n-type silicon solar cell fabrication. The removal of parasitically deposited poly-Si layers on the front and the edges is a mandatory requirement for a low reverse bias junction leakage current (I_rev). A polysilicon removal study on wafer level shows (i) that the efficient removal of the surface oxide layer before poly-Si etching is crucial to achieve short etching times and (ii) that an additive in the KOH solution enhances etching selectivity between poly-Si and silicon oxide surfaces. To evaluate the impact on device level, TOPCon cells have been fabricated in parallel using in-situ n-doped PECVD and LPCVD layers, as well as ex-situ LPCVD poly-Si layers, with another variation of poly-Si removal processes, namely wet chemical inline, wet chemical batch cluster and atmospheric dry etching (ADE). Our results show that a two-minute inline polysilicon removal in hot KOH meets the I_rev qualification in case of as deposited in-situ doped layers, whereas for ex-situ doped layers a batch process with a five-minute KOH etching time is needed. LPCVD poly-Si cells show efficiencies above 23%, PECVD poly-Si cells with a batch cluster poly-Si removal process up to 23.4%.