>24% screen printed Cu contacted n-TOPCon solar cells with successful implementation of LECO process

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Authors: Young‐Woo Ok, Ruohan Zhong, Vijaykumar Upadhyaya, Venkata Sai Aditya Mulkaluri, Ajeet Rohatgi, Dustin L. Williams, Kevin Elmer, Apolo Nambo, Ruvini Dharmadasa, Thad Druffel, Pauls Stradins, Harvey Guthrey
Cited by: 2
References: 16

Abstract

In this paper, we report the successful fabrication of >24.0 % efficiency n-TOPCon Si solar cells with screen-printed, fire-through Cu contact to n-TOPCon on the rear side and Ag contacted boron emitter on the front side by implementing optimized firing and LECO conditions. The highest efficiency (24.3%) Cu contacted n-TOPCon cell in this study showed excellent cell performance parameters with V oc >730 mV, J sc of 41.1 mA/cm 2 and FF of 80.8%, resulting in an absolute efficiency gap of 0.2% between Cu-contacted and fully Ag contacted n-TOPCon cells (24.5%). The mini-module fabricated with the Cu contacted n-TOPCon cell showed excellent reliability and durability of open-circuit voltage (V oc ), pseudo fill factor (pFF) and efficiency after prolonged damp-heat tests. Such high efficiency screen printed Cu contacted n-TOPCon cells provide unique opportunity to replace very expensive Ag contact on n-TOPCon with cheaper screen printable Cu metal pastes.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies Copper-based nanomaterials and applications Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Systems

Publication details

Journal / source
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Volume
302
Pages
114356–114356
Publication date
9 April 2026
Language
EN