Impact of handling defects towards SHJ cell parameters

Within this paper, a systematic approach will be presented to specify the influence of defects caused by vacuum grippers onto silicon heterojunction solar cell parameters. The study focuses on the comparison between handling-induced defects originating from handling on the emitter or non-emitter side, and the comparison of handling-induced defects originating from handling before and after plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The analysis was carried out by means of J–V measurements on manufactured silicon heterojunction solar cells and by means of suns photoluminescence imaging measurements on solar cell precursors. It is shown that local insufficient passivated regions caused by handling before passivation not only cause a local electrical defect at the point of handling, but also affect a large area around the insufficient passivated region. This had a significant negative effect on fill factor, short-circuit current, open circuit voltage and efficiency, which was found to be more severe for wafers handled on the non-emitter side.