Copper Screen Printed and Fired for Metallization of Silicon Solar Cells

Silicon solar cells almost exclusively include a front side metallization using silver that is deposited by screen printing and fired in belt furnaces. In 2020, the industry was consuming approximately 10% of the global supply of silver, and recent calls to dramatically increase photovoltaic production will add to the module price pressures from this precious metal. The ideal replacement for silver is copper; however, oxidation during firing and diffusion of copper into silicon has kept the industry from adopting copper. In this talk we will present results from a copper paste that was formulated to be screen printed and fired in a belt furnace without the use of an inert gas. The data presented will include the oxidation of the copper after the firing and the SiN etching performance of the paste. LIV data for the cells will be presented along with data describing the durability of the cell in an accelerated test.