title: Highly Conformal Ni Micromesh as a Current Collecting Front Electrode for Reduced Cost Si Solar Cell.
abstract: Despite relatively high manufacturing cost, crystalline-Si solar cell continues to hold promising future due to its high energy conversion efficiency and long life. As regards cost, one pertinent issue is the top electrode metallization of textured cell surface, which typically involves screen printing of silver paste. The associated disadvantages call for alternative methods that can lower the cost without compromising the solar cell efficiency. In the present work, a highly interconnected one-dimensional (1D) metal wire network has been employed as front electrode on conventional Si wafers. Here, for the first time, we report an innovative solution based crackle templating method for conformal metal wire network patterning over large textured surfaces. Laser beam induced current mapping showed uniform photocurrent collection by the electrodes without any shadow losses. With electroless deposition of Ni wire network on corrugated solar cell, a short circuit current of 33.28 mA/cm2was obtained in comparison to 20.53 mA/cm2without the network electrode. On comparing the efficiency with the conventional cells with screen printed electrodes, a 20% increment in efficiency has been observed. Importantly, the estimated manufacturing cost is at least two orders lower.
authors.affiliation: Chemistry and Physics of Materials Unit and Thematic Unit of Excellence in Nanochemistry, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research , Jakkur P.O., Bangalore 560064, India.
authors.forename: Nikita
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences , Jalahalli, Bangalore 560013, India.
authors.forename: K D M
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Chemistry and Physics of Materials Unit and Thematic Unit of Excellence in Nanochemistry, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research , Jakkur P.O., Bangalore 560064, India.|Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur , Jodhpur 342011, Rajasthan India.|Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark , Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ritu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark , Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: Frederik C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Krebs
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences , Jalahalli, Bangalore 560013, India.
authors.forename: Giridhar U
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4317-1307
authors.initials: GU
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
keywords: Si solar cell; crackle lithography; photovoltaics; solution process; top contact metallization