Simulation study on the impact of boron-oxygen related light-induced degradation in different silicon solar cell architectures

Abstract

The impact of boron-oxygen related light-induced degradation (BO-LID) of bulk lifetime on the efficiency of PERC and full area Al-alloyed cells is studied by means of device simulations. As the higher efficiency potential of PERC cells relies on the better use of high bulk lifetime, PERC cells are -as expected- found to be stronger impacted by BO-LID. However, the exact extent of BO-LID in both cell architectures depends on factors like resistivity, oxygen level, thermal processing and bulk lifetime limitation by other defects.