Thermal decomposition of silver acetate in silver paste for solar cell metallization: An effective route to reduce contact resistance

A screen printed silver/metallic glass (MG) paste formulated with Ag acetate resulted in a specific contact resistance in the range of 0.6–0.7 mΩ·cm² on both the n- and p-type Si emitters of interdigitated back-contact solar cells. Silver nanocrystallites resulting from thermally decomposed Ag acetate prevented the Al MG frits from directly interacting with the Si emitter, thus reducing the amount of Al diffused into the Si emitters, and subsequently, the contact resistance. A photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 20.3% was achieved using this technique.