Investigation of the effect of compensation ratio (RC) on solar cells fabricated with solar grade (SoG) czochralski silicon

Fabrication and characterization of monocrystalline silicon (Si) solar cells was performed on wafers containing compensated solar grade Si. The wafers used in these experiments were sawn from ingots grown with different compensation ratios. Efficiencies in the range of 17.0-17.8% were obtained from all the different groups of wafers. Efficiency was observed to decrease as compensation ratio increased. After processing, wafers were put under light to observe the effects of light induced degradation (LID). Degradation was seen on all cells, with the greatest impact on wafers with the highest compensation ratio (between 0.5-1% absolute drop in efficiency). Finally, processed wafers were selected from some groups to measure the bulk lifetime. The trend in bulk lifetime follows the trend in efficiency.