Dielectric rear surface passivation for industrial multicrystalline silicon solar cells

Thermal oxides are commonly used for the production of high-efficiency silicon solar cells from mono- and multicrystalline silicon and have led to the highest conversion efficiencies reported so far. Following the development of high-efficiency cells of small area (1 or 4 cm(2)) using photolithographic techniques, in the present study large area cells ( >= 100 cm(2)) are manufactured employing an industrial front structure. In this paper we present two different passivation schemes for the rear surface of industrial multicrystalline silicon solar cells. The first scheme is a thick thermal oxide grown under wet conditions. The second scheme represents a stack system which comprises the benefits of silicon oxide and silicon nitride layers. In both cases the front surface metallisation is achieved with standard industrial screen-printed silver paste.