The development of the advanced semiconductor finger solar cell

The advanced semiconductor finger solar cell is a silicon wafer cell designed for industrial implementation. The concept incorporates a selective emitter with a front side grid metallisation that combines the advantages of both screen printing and plating techniques. Screen‐printed metal forms the busbars and a few thick but widely spaced fingers. The current is carried to these fingers via narrow, closely spaced, thinly plated, laser‐doped lines formed perpendicular to the fingers. This paper explains the evolution from the original semiconductor finger cell design to this advanced version and outlines the issues encountered in the process development thus far. An encouraging result of 18.5% efficiency has been achieved on a large area cell with fully industrial equipment, and several opportunities for significant improvement are identified.