An elegant method of determination of front contact resistance of large area silicon solar cells and relative importance of different resistive components to power loss

In this study contact resistance of 10cm x 10cm large area silicon solar cells were measured by an elegant and convenient method. Three types of samples were used, e.g., (i) textured, (ii) textured with oxide grown on it during diffusion, and (iii) textured with Si3N4 ARC. With marginal variation of this method sheet resistivity of the emitter was determined and the shea resistivity values matched well with those measured independently by four point probe (FPP) method. From the geometry and dimensions of the fingers and busbar and the measured values of the resistivity of the contact material and emitter, the power losses due to different resistive elements in the solar cell were obtained and the total power loss was found to agree with that determined from illuminated I-V characteristics.