Silicon diffusion in aluminum for rear passivated solar cells

We show that the lateral spread of silicon in a screen-printed aluminum layer increases by (1.50 +/- 0.06) mu m/degrees C, when increasing the peak firing temperature within an industrially applicable range. In this way, the maximum spread limit of diffused silicon in aluminum is predictable and does not depend on the contact area size but on the firing temperature. Therefore, the geometry of the rear side pattern can influence not only series resistance losses within the solar cell but the process of contact formation itself. In addition, too fast cooling lead to Kirkendall void formations instead of an eutectic layer. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3579541]