Study of hydrogenation with electron injection for TOPCon solar cells with different tunneling oxide layers

In order to further improve the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells, the hydrogenation with electron injection (HEI) technique on TOPCon solar cells with different processes for preparing tunneling SiOx layers was investigated. The experimental results showed that the conversion efficiency enhancement of TOPCon solar cells with a tunneling SiOx layer prepared by a N2O plasma oxidation method (PO method) was lower than that of the cells prepared by an indirect thermal oxidation method (TO method) under the same HEI treatment conditions. Further studies proved that the improvement effect after HEI treatment was closely related to the denseness of the tunneling SiOx layer: HEI treatment for TOPCon solar cells with a low dense tunneling SiOx layer (TO method) requires higher temperature, higher current, and longer time to achieve a better improvement, while the HEI parameters of cells with a high dense tunneling oxide layer (PO method) need to be readjusted. By optimizing the HEI parameters for cells prepared by the PO method, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the cells was finally improved by 0.098%abs. The PCE was improved from the original negative growth to a level close to that of the TOPCon cells prepared by the TO method. This result provided an improved process flow to further increase the efficiency of TOPCon solar cells.