Future Prospect & Challenges on Cu/Ni Metallization  Techniques in Photovoltaic Cells

M. Tukur Ahmed; He  Longbing; Shaikh Sabieh

Future Prospect & Challenges on Cu/Ni Metallization Techniques in Photovoltaic Cells

M. Tukur Ahmed, He Longbing, Shaikh Sabieh

Vol. 12, Issue 05, PP. 91-104, May 2025

Keywords: Copper, Nickel, Metallization, LIP, Silicide

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A key component of achieving higher efficiency is improving the process of metalizing silicon solar cells. Due to its simplicity and speed, contact realization by screen printing is now the most popular technology in the silicon-based photovoltaic sector. The issue with this type of metallization is that it has a higher contact resistance and a smaller aspect ratio, which restricts the efficiency of solar cells. Silicon solar cell producers are encouraged to develop new metallization techniques that use less silver and do not rely on the pressing process of screen printing due to the rising cost of silver pastes and decreasing silicon wafer thicknesses. Recently, a metallization technique that might address these problems is nickel/copper (Ni/Cu) based metal plating. In this review, we will describe the progress of electroplating techniques, mainly for the deposition of nickel/copper by laser deposition for nickel and the light-induced copper plating process. The metallization of the front-side silicon solar cells using a copper stack system is integral to achieving superior efficiency. The formation of a Ni seed layer by applying laser-assisted deposition has the advantage of using a single step for opening the ARC and the seed layer formation. Cu conducting layer using a light-induced plating (LIP) as the primary stack system, after applying a nickel seed layer to stop copper from diffusing into silicon, we also check tin as a top layer stack to protect it from oxidation. Moreover, we finally addressed the future advanced challenges and the issue of copper diffusion, background plating, and cost reductions.

M. Tukur Ahmed, ahmedtukur10@163.com, Department of Integrated Circuits of Southeast University, Nanjing, China , China.
He Longbing, helongbing@seu.edu.cn, Schools of Electronic Science & Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
Shaikh Sabieh, shaikhsabieh@outlook.com, Department of Integrated Circuits of Southeast University, Nanjing, China , China.

M. Tukur Ahmed He Longbing Shaikh Sabieh “Future Prospect & Challenges on Cu/Ni Metallization Techniques in Photovoltaic Ce Vol. 12 Issue 05 PP. 91-104 May 2025. https://doi.org/10.34259/ijew.25.120591104.

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