Fine Line Metallization of Silicon Solar Cells via Collimated Aerosol Beam Direct Write

The global push for affordable sources of renewable energy has sparked rapid growth in photovoltaic research directed at improving the efficiency of the overall cells. Efficiency gains related to the optimization of the top metallization layer and current collector are largely limited by the minimum collector line width (∼100 μm) that can be printed using industrial processes such as screen printing. An alternative direct-write process termed Collimated Aerosol Beam Direct-Write (CAB-DW) is capable of depositing collector lines as thin as 15μm wide while still allowing heights up to 7 μm. In this paper we present data demonstrating improvements to efficiency of silicon solar cells with optimized grid designs along with a theoretical/experimental comparison confirming these results. Finally, results demonstrating collector grid induced light trapping possible with direct-written traces which reduces shadowing and further increases collection efficiency are presented.