Nickel Electroless Plating: Adhesion Analysis for Mono-Type Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract

The adhesion of the front electrodes to silicon substrate is the most important parameters to be optimized. Nickel silicide which is formed by sintering process using a silicon substrate improves the mechanical and electrical properties as well as act as diffusion barrier for copper. In this experiment p-type mono-crystalline czochralski (CZ) silicon wafers having resistivity of 1.5 Ω·cm were used to study one step and two step nickel electroless plating process. POCl3 diffusion process was performed to form the emitter with the sheet resistance of 70 ohm/sq. The SiNx layer was set down as an antireflection coating (ARC) layer at emitter surface by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process. Laser ablation process was used to open SiNx passivation layer locally for the formation of the front electrodes. Nickel was deposited by electroless plating process by one step and two step nickel electroless deposition process. The two step nickel plating was performed by applying a second nickel deposition step subsequent to the first sintering process. Furthermore, the adhesion analysis for both one step and two steps process was conducted using peel force tester (universal testing machine, H5KT) after depositing Cu contact by light induced plating (LIP).