A photovoltaic device and method include a substrate coupled to an emitter side structure on a first side of the substrate and a back side structure on a side opposite the first side of the substrate. The emitter side structure or the back side structure include layers alternating between wide band gap layers and narrow band gap layers to provide a multilayer contact with an effectively increased band offset with the substrate and/or an effectively higher doping level over a single material contact. An emitter contact is coupled to the emitter side structure on a light collecting end portion of the device. A back contact is coupled to the back side structure opposite the light collecting end portion.

One embodiment of the present invention can provide a system for fabrication of a photovoltaic structure. The system can include a physical vapor deposition tool configured to sequentially deposit a transparent conductive oxide layer and a metallic layer on an emitter layer formed in a first surface of a Si substrate, without requiring the Si substrate to be removed from the physical vapor deposition tool after depositing the transparent conductive oxide layer. The system can further include an electroplating tool configured to plate a metallic grid on the metallic layer and a thermal annealing tool configured to anneal the transparent conductive oxide layer.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a photovoltaic module. The photovoltaic module includes a front-side cover, a back-side cover, and a plurality of angled photovoltaic strings situated between the front- and back-side covers. A respective angled photovoltaic string includes a plurality of photovoltaic cells coupled in series with an offset. The angled photovoltaic strings are couple in parallel and form a geometrical shape of the photovoltaic panel with at least one vertex having an oblique angle.

In a method for manufacturing a solar cell, a first electrode is formed on one surface of a photoelectric conversion section by means of screen printing using a conductive paste, and a second electrode having an area larger than that of the first electrode is formed on the other surface of the photoelectric conversion section by means of screen printing using a conductive paste having viscosity lower than that of the conductive paste.

The precursor comprises at least one layer of doped crystalline silicon and a layer of doped amorphous semiconductor material. The method comprises the steps of placing the cell precursor sandwiched between a grounded conducting plate and a plate made of insulating material coated with a conducting layer, then applying a state change electrical voltage (U1) between the conducting layer and ground, the said state change electrical voltage (U1) being designed to bring the Fermi level at the interface between crystalline silicon and amorphous semiconductor material closer to the middle of the band gap of the said amorphous semiconductor material, while at the same time heating the cell precursor to a defect equilibration temperature (T.sub.E), and finally cooling down the cell precursor (10) prior to interrupting the application of the state change electrical voltage (U1).

Methods of fabricating solar cell emitter regions with differentiated P-type and N-type regions architectures, and resulting solar cells, are described. In an example, a back contact solar cell includes a substrate having a light-receiving surface and a back surface. A first polycrystalline silicon emitter region of a first conductivity type is disposed on a first thin dielectric layer disposed on the back surface of the substrate. A second polycrystalline silicon emitter region of a second, different, conductivity type is disposed on a second thin dielectric layer disposed on the back surface of the substrate. A third thin dielectric layer is disposed laterally directly between the first and second polycrystalline silicon emitter regions. A first conductive contact structure is disposed on the first polycrystalline silicon emitter region. A second conductive contact structure is disposed on the second polycrystalline silicon emitter region.

Disclosed are a solar cell and a method for manufacturing the same. A solar cell includes a semiconductor substrate, a tunnel layer on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, a first conductive type semiconductor region on the tunnel layer and includes impurities of a first conductive type, a second conductive type semiconductor region on a second surface and includes impurities of a second conductive type opposite the first conductive type, a first passivation film on the first conductive type semiconductor region, a first electrode formed on the first passivation film and connected to the first conductive type semiconductor region through an opening portion formed in the first passivation film, a second passivation film on the second conductive type semiconductor region, and a second electrode formed on the second passivation film and connected to the second conductive type semiconductor region through an opening portion formed in the second passivation film.

The invention relates to a method for producing a photovoltaic solar cell having at least one hetero-junction, including the following steps: A) providing a semiconductor substrate having base doping; B) producing a hetero-junction on at least one side of the semiconductor substrate, which hetero-junction has a doped hetero-junction layer and a dielectric tunnel layer arranged indirectly or directly between the hetero-junction layer and the semiconductor substrate; C) heating at least the hetero-junction layer in order to improve the electrical quality of the heterojunction. The invention is characterized in that, in a step D after step C, hydrogen is diffused into the hetero-junction layer and/or to the interface between the tunnel layer and the semiconductor substrate.

A method for texturing silicon includes loading a silicon wafer into a vacuum chamber, heating the silicon wafer and thermal cracking a gas to generate cracked sulfur species. The silicon wafer is exposed to the cracked sulfur species for a time duration in accordance with a texture characteristic needed for a surface of the silicon wafer.

A solar cell can include a silicon semiconductor substrate; an oxide layer on a first surface of the silicon semiconductor substrate; a polysilicon layer on the oxide layer; a diffusion region at a second surface of the silicon semiconductor substrate; a dielectric film on the polysilicon layer; a first electrode connected to the polysilicon layer through the dielectric film; a passivation film on the diffusion region; and a second electrode connected to the diffusion region through the passivation film.