Methods of fabricating emitter regions of solar cells using surface treatments, and the resulting solar cells, are described herein. In an example, a method of fabricating a solar cell includes treating a surface of a silicon substrate to form a lyophilic area between two lyophobic areas and depositing a liquid phase material containing a silicon material in the lyophilic area to form an emitter region.

Provided is a busbar-free interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cell and an IBC solar cell module. The IBC solar cell includes a semiconductor substrate, finger electrode lines and conductive lines. The finger electrode lines include first finger electrode lines and second finger electrode lines that are alternately arranged on the semiconductor substrate. The conductive lines include first conductive lines and second conductive lines that are alternately arranged. The first conductive lines are connected to the first finger electrode lines and spaced apart from the second finger electrode lines. The second conductive lines are connected to the second finger electrode lines and spaced apart from the first finger electrode lines.

A solar cell module includes solar cells each including a semiconductor substrate and first and second electrodes that extend in a first direction on a surface of the semiconductor substrate and have different polarities; conductive lines extended in a second direction crossing the first direction on the surface of the semiconductor substrate included in each solar cell and connected to the first electrodes or the second electrodes through a conductive adhesive; and an insulating adhesive portion extending in the first direction on at least a portion of the surface of the semiconductor substrate, on which the conductive lines are disposed, and temporarily fixing the conductive lines to the semiconductor substrate and the first and second electrodes, the insulating adhesive portion being attached on a back surface of least a portion of each conductive line as well as a side surface of at least a portion of each conductive line.

A flexible photovoltaic (PV) cell having enhanced properties of mechanical impact absorption, includes: a semiconductor wafer that is freestanding and carrier-less; having a thickness, and having a first surface, and a having second surface that is opposite to that first surface; a set of non-transcending gaps within the semiconductor wafer. Each non-transcending gap penetrates from the first surface towards the second surface but reaches to a depth of between 80 to 99 percent of the thickness of the semiconductor wafer, and does not reach said second surface. Each non-transcending gap does not entirely penetrate through an entirety of the thickness of the semiconductor wafer. The semiconductor wafer maintains at least 1 percent of the thickness of the semiconductor wafer as an intact and non-penetrated thin layer of semiconductor wafer that remains intact and non-penetrated by the non-transcending gaps. The intact and non-penetrated thin layer of semiconductor wafer absorbs and dissipates mechanical forces.

A photovoltaic module (1) with a plurality of photovoltaic units (3) each having a positive contact terminal (8) and a negative contact terminal (7), and a single layer back contact substrate (4). The back contact substrate (4) has a positive surface part (6) electrically connected to the positive contact terminal (8) of each of the plurality of photovoltaic units (3), and a negative surface part (5) electrically connected to the negative contact terminal (7) of each of the plurality of photovoltaic units (3). The photovoltaic module (1) further has at least one contact bridge (9a, 9b) in a layer of the photovoltaic module (1) outside of the single layer back contact substrate (4), which provides an electrical connection in the negative surface part (5) and/or in the positive surface part (6).

A solar cell including a semiconductor substrate having a first conductivity type an emitter region, having a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type, on a first main surface of the semiconductor substrate an emitter electrode which is in contact with the emitter region a base region having the first conductivity type a base electrode which is in contact with the base region and an insulator film for preventing an electrical short-circuit between the emitter region and the base region, wherein the insulator film is made of a polyimide, and the insulator film has a C.sub.6H.sub.11O.sub.2 detection count number of 100 or less when the insulator film is irradiated with Bi.sub.5.sup.++ ions with an acceleration voltage of 30 kV and an ion current of 0.2 pA by a TOF-SIMS method. The solar cell can have excellent weather resistance and high photoelectric conversion characteristics.

A solar cell having, on a semiconductor substrate's first main surface a first conductivity type, a base layer having first conductivity type and an emitter layer which is adjacent to base layer and has a second conductivity type which is a conductivity type opposite to first conductivity type, the solar cell includes: a base electrode which is electrically connected with base layer; and an emitter electrode which is electrically connected with emitter layer, solar cell including: dielectric films which are in contact with base and emitter layer on first main surface; first insulator films which cover the emitter electrode, are placed on the dielectric films, and are arranged to have a gap at least on base layer; and a base bus bar electrode placed at least on first insulator films, and being wherein gap distance between the first insulator films is 40 μm or more and (W+110) μm or less.

A solar cell including a semiconductor substrate having a first conductivity type an emitter region, having a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type, on a first main surface of the semiconductor substrate an emitter electrode which is in contact with the emitter region a base region having the first conductivity type a base electrode which is in contact with the base region and an insulator film for preventing an electrical short-circuit between the emitter region and the base region, wherein the insulator film is made of a polyimide, and the insulator film has a C.sub.6H.sub.11O.sub.2 detection count number of 100 or less when the insulator film is irradiated with Bi.sub.5.sup.++ ions with an acceleration voltage of 30 kV and an ion current of 0.2 pA by a TOF-SIMS method. There can be provided a solar cell having excellent weather resistance and high photoelectric conversion characteristics.

A solar cell includes polysilicon P-type and N-type doped regions on a backside of a substrate, such as a silicon wafer. A trench structure separates the P-type doped region from the N-type doped region. Each of the P-type and N-type doped regions may be formed over a thin dielectric layer. The trench structure may include a textured surface for increased solar radiation collection. Among other advantages, the resulting structure increases efficiency by providing isolation between adjacent P-type and N-type doped regions, thereby preventing recombination in a space charge region where the doped regions would have touched.

Methods of fabricating solar cell emitter regions with differentiated P-type and N-type region architectures, and the resulting solar cells, are described herein. In an example, a solar cell includes an N-type semiconductor substrate having a light-receiving surface and a back surface. A plurality of N-type polycrystalline silicon regions is disposed on a first thin dielectric layer disposed on the back surface of the N-type semiconductor substrate. A plurality of P-type polycrystalline silicon regions is disposed on a second thin dielectric layer disposed in a corresponding one of a plurality of trenches interleaving the plurality of N-type polycrystalline silicon regions in the back surface of the N-type semiconductor substrate.