SiO2 passivation layer grown by liquid phase deposition for silicon solar cell application

Surface passivation is one of the primary requirements for high efficient silicon solar cells. Though the current existed passivation techniques are effective, expensive equipments are required. In this paper, a comprehensive understanding of the SiO₂ passivation layer grown by liquid phase deposition (LPD) was presented, which was cost-effective and very simple. It was found that the post-annealing process could significantly enhance the passivation effect of the LPD SiO₂ film. Besides, it was revealed that both chemical passivation and field-effect passivation mechanisms played important roles in outstanding passivation effect of the LPD SiO₂ film through analyzing the minority carrier lifetime and the surface recombination velocity of n-type and p-type silicon wafers. Although the deposition parameters had little influence on the passivation effect, they affected the deposition rate. Therefore, appropriate deposition parameters should be carefully chosen based on the compromise of the deposition rate and fabrication cost. By utilizing the LPD SiO₂ film as surface passivation layer, a 19.5%-efficient silicon solar cell on a large-scale wafer (156 mm × 156 mm) was fabricated.