Understanding the impact of double screen-printing on silicon solar cells by 2-D numerical simulations

In this work we investigate c-Si solar cells in which a two steps (double) screen-printing is implemented for the front contact in order to increase the aspect ratio of the fingers. To this purpose numerical simulations are performed on a solar cell and metallization properties are defined according to experimental data. The analysis of solar cells with conventional single screen-printing is also performed for comparison. In agreement with experiments we show the efficiency improvement of double printing over single printing. The analysis of electrical parameters (fill factor, short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage) allows to understand the source of the enhanced efficiency. © 2011 IEEE.