UNSW SPREE 202404-19 Shona McNab - Beyond SiOx for Hole-Selective Poly-Si Passivating Contacts

UNSW School of Photovoltaic & Renewable Energy Engineering
Beyond SiOx for Hole-Selective Poly-Si Passivating Contacts
Shona McNab
UNSW SPREE via Oxford University
19 April 2024
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ABSTRACT
TOPCon is now overtaking PERC as the mainstream PV technology due to superior efficiencies enabled by the n-type poly-Si passivating contact. The natural progression to further enhance the efficiency of silicon cells would be to combine the n-type poly-Si contact with a p-type passivating contact. However, fabricating hole-selective poly-Si based contacts to the same high standard has proved difficult. This is, in part, due to intrinsic properties of the silicon oxide passivation layer, which make it extremely challenging to optimise the contacts for both transport and passivation. This talk looks at the potential for alternative nanolayers (namely silicon nitride and aluminium oxide) to mitigate some of these challenges and offer unique benefits compared to the standard SiOx. It covers the fabrication and testing of these contacts, with a particular focus on advanced characterisation of the nanolayers.
BRIEF BIO
Shona studied materials science at the University of Oxford, where she received an MEng in 2018. She stayed on to complete a PhD in the department under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Bonilla, graduating in 2023. Her PhD focussed on nanolayer deposition and characterisation for high efficiency silicon-PV, specifically in novel interlayers for poly-Si contacts. In October last year, she joined SPREE as a post-doctoral researcher on the OMEGA silicon project, where she is applying her knowledge of passivating contacts to develop a passivating interlayer which allows exciton transport from an organic singlet fission material into silicon.