Roller printed multicrystalline silicon solar cells with 16% efficiency and 25 /spl mu/m finger width

The authors present results on multicrystalline silicon solar cells metallized by the novel roller printing technique. An efficiency of 16.3% has been achieved on 10/spl times/10 cm/sup 2/ Baysix multicrystalline silicon in a low cost process, applying a homogeneous 35 /spl Omega//sq emitter. The roller printed fingers show excellent properties, namely an optical finger width of 25 /spl mu/m, leading to a total finger shadowing of only 1.5%. Due to nonoptimal contact resistances the mean value of the fill factor of the roller printed cells is only about 73%. Device simulations predict for roller printed cells with low contact resistances and an optimized finger spacing a cell efficiency of 16.8% and an efficiency gain of 0.7% over screen printed cells. On a 50 /spl Omega//sq emitter even a 17% cell efficiency seems to be achievable after optimization of the firing conditions.