INDUSTRIALLY APPLICABLE METALLISATION WRAP THROUGH SOLAR CELL PROCESS RESULTING IN EFFICIENCIES EXCEEDING 16

Metallization Wrap Through (MWT) solar cells are back contact solar cells with a cell design that is particularly suited for large area cells. New interconnection technologies, applicable to back-contact cells, might be beneficial for the interconnection of thin wafers. As there is a trend in the industry to process both larger and thinner wafers, the development of a production process for MWT solar cells that can be transferred into an industrial environment is desirable. Our cell process for MWT cells is very similar to that of conventional screen-printed solar cells. Apart from minor adaptations, the additional effort is mostly only the formation of a limited number of holes with a laser. Large area (156 mm x156 mm) MWT cells with efficiencies up to 16.7% were processed. The cell process proved to be stable on a batch of over 80 cells, resulting in an average cell efficiency of 16.2%.