Electroless plating, a simple route for Nickel deposition for solar cells

A simple method for metal deposition on solar cells surface has been developed. Nickel is used as contact barrier to copper and permits low contact resistance on n
⁺
silicon Nickel chloride is used to deposit contacts on front surface. The pattern is obtained by laser ablation on silicon nitride. Laser treatment permits also to get a selective emitter n
⁺⁺
of 30Ω/ □ sheet resistance on which Nickel is plated. Different temperatures are used to cure Nickel deposited on Silicon and contact resistance is measured. NiSi phase is investigated using DRX patterns and FTIR spectra. SIMS analysis evidenced the contact barrier of thid phase to copper diffusion. The originality of this work is relative to the solution and the route used.