Development of Selective Electroless-Deposited Electrode in Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-Layer Solar Cell

In this paper, we describe selective deposition of a major electrode and a protection electrode in a heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer (HIT) type solar cell. Sn and Ni were used for the protection electrode to prevent the oxidation of Cu, which was used for the main electrode. SEM and TEM were used to analyze the microstructural evolution and changes in the interface as a result of each electroless deposition. Finally, the performance of our solar cell created via electroless deposition was evaluated. We determined the photovoltaic conversion efficiency (PCE) to be 16.4 %, the fill factor (FF) to be 72.2 %, the open circuit voltage (Voc) to be 681 mV, and the short circuit current (Jsc) to be 33.0 mA/cm². These output values match the performance of an Ag screen-printed solar cell and demonstrate the possibility of commercializing an inexpensive HIT solar cell with high efficiency.