Laser Doping of Solar Cells (LasSol)

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Abstract:

Photovoltaics is one option for sustainable energy supply and a strong emerging market in Europe. The LasSol project investigates the laser doping of solar cells. This technology allows to increase the efficiency of solar cells and to reduce the costs for solar power. The 3-year project is funded with about 3.2 M€ by the German government. The partners are TRUMPF Laser GmbH & Co. KG, LIMO Mikrooptik GmbH, Manz Automation AG, Schott Solar GmbH, Solarwatt Cells GmbH, and the IFSW and the ipe from the University of Stuttgart. The goal of the project is to demonstrate a significant enhancement of the efficiency of silicon solar cells by the fabrication of selective emitter structures with higher doping concentration by laser-induced doping. The demonstration will be performed under conditions relevant for the volume production of solar cells. The selectively doped structures will be generated on wafers with low doping concentration using a pulsed green laser source. This process will increase the efficiency of the solar cells and reduce the specific costs significantly. In contrast to the published alternative approaches, the proposed laser doping process allows to create a selective emitter structure with only one additional processing step and to keep the preceding and following steps the same. The economic potential of the proposed process is enormous. This laser technology will support and accelerate the boom of the European solar energy market.