A passivating contact concept compatible with a short thermal treatment

In this study we present a boron-doped silicon carbide layers as a hole-selective contact which is compatible with short annealing time (typically < 1 minute) as the one used for firing of metal pastes. The application of such layers on symmetrically processed test structures lead to implied open circuit voltages up to 715 mV and contact resistances below 75 m Omega.cm(2). Proof-of-concept p-type solar cells employing such passivating contact stack over the full-rear side and a POCl3 diffused emitter metallized with firing-through of Ag-paste were processed, leading to a first conversion efficiency of 21.4%.