Process development toward a 15% efficient 230 cm/sup 2/ screen printed multicrystalline silicon solar cell

In commercial production, Solarex's baseline multicrystalline solar cells are 130 cm/sup 2/ in area with an average efficiency of approximately 13%. One of the goals of Solarex's Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) program (sponsored by NREL), is the development of a cost-effective cell process to achieve an average cell efficiency of 15% on large-area substrates. In this paper, the details of the efforts to scale-up the area of the cells from 130 cm/sup 2/ to 230 cm/sup 2/ and the details of the development of an integrated high efficiency solar cell process sequence are reported.