A method for manufacturing high efficiency solar cells is disclosed. The method comprises providing a thin dielectric layer and a doped polysilicon layer on the back side of a silicon substrate. Subsequently, a high quality oxide layer and a wide band gap doped semiconductor layer can both be formed on the back and front sides of the silicon substrate. A metallization process to plate metal fingers onto the doped polysilicon layer through contact openings can then be performed. The plated metal fingers can form a first metal gridline. A second metal gridline can be formed by directly plating metal to an emitter region on the back side of the silicon substrate, eliminating the need for contact openings for the second metal gridline. Among the advantages, the method for manufacture provides decreased thermal processes, decreased etching steps, increased efficiency and a simplified procedure for the manufacture of high efficiency solar cells.

An ingot includes a first surface, a second surface opposite to the first surface, and a third surface positioned along a first direction and connecting the first surface and the second surface. The ingot includes: a first pseudo single crystal region; an intermediate region containing one or more pseudo single crystal regions; and a second pseudo single crystal region. The first pseudo single crystal region, the intermediate region, and the second pseudo single crystal region are positioned adjacent sequentially in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. In the second direction, a width of each of the first and second pseudo single crystal regions is larger than a width of the first intermediate region. Each of a boundary between the first pseudo single crystal region and the intermediate region and a boundary between the second pseudo single crystal region and the intermediate region includes a coincidence boundary.

A bipolar solar cell includes a backside junction formed by an N-type silicon substrate and a P-type polysilicon emitter formed on the backside of the solar cell. An antireflection layer may be formed on a textured front surface of the silicon substrate. A negative polarity metal contact on the front side of the solar cell makes an electrical connection to the substrate, while a positive polarity metal contact on the backside of the solar cell makes an electrical connection to the polysilicon emitter. An external electrical circuit may be connected to the negative and positive metal contacts to be powered by the solar cell. The positive polarity metal contact may form an infrared reflecting layer with an underlying dielectric layer for increased solar radiation collection.

The invention relates to a back-side contact solar cell including a semiconductor substrate, in particular a silicon wafer, including a front side and a back side, the solar cell having electrodes of a first polarity and electrodes of a second polarity on the back side, wherein a tunnel layer and a highly doped silicon layer are positioned under the electrodes of a first polarity, and the electrodes of the second polarity make direct electrical and mechanical contact with the semiconductor substrate.

A rod-shaped body (10) is used to lift a cover (103) so as to detach the cover from a bottom plate (101), together with which the cover (103) forms a reactor (100). The rod-shaped body (10) includes a first part (11) to be inserted into a bottom plate-side hole (102a) provided in a surrounding area of the bottom plate (101) and a second part (12) to be inserted into a cover-side hole (104a) disposed in a surrounding area of the cover (103) so as to face the bottom plate-side hole (102a).

A fluid sensor includes a substrate having a top main surface region, wherein the top main surface region of the substrate forms a common system plane of the fluid sensor, a thermal radiation emitter on the top main surface region of the substrate, an optical filter structure on the top main surface region of the substrate, a waveguide on the main top surface region of the substrate, and a thermal radiation detector on the top main surface region of the substrate, wherein the thermal radiation detector provides a detector output signal based on a radiation strength of the filtered thermal radiation received from the waveguide.

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 is a solar cell including a semiconductor substrate, and a dopant layer disposed over one surface of the semiconductor substrate and having a crystalline structure different from that of the semiconductor substrate, the dopant layer including a dopant. The dopant layer includes a plurality of semiconductor layers stacked one above another in a thickness direction thereof, and an interface layer interposed therebetween. The interface layer is an oxide layer having a higher concentration of oxygen than that in each of the plurality of semiconductor layers.

A method for manufacturing high efficiency solar cells is disclosed. The method comprises providing a thin dielectric layer and a doped polysilicon layer on the back side of a silicon substrate. Subsequently, a high quality oxide layer and a wide band gap doped semiconductor layer can both be formed on the back and front sides of the silicon substrate. A metallization process to plate metal fingers onto the doped polysilicon layer through contact openings can then be performed. The plated metal fingers can form a first metal gridline. A second metal gridline can be formed by directly plating metal to an emitter region on the back side of the silicon substrate, eliminating the need for contact openings for the second metal gridline. Among the advantages, the method for manufacture provides decreased thermal processes, decreased etching steps, increased efficiency and a simplified procedure for the manufacture of high efficiency solar cells.

A back surface electrode type solar cell in which a p-type region having a p-conductive type, and an n-type region which has an n-conductive type and in which maximum concentration of additive impurities for providing the n-conductive type in a substrate width direction is equal to or higher than 5×10.sup.18 atoms/cm.sup.3 are disposed on a first main surface of a crystal silicon substrate, a first passivation film is disposed so as to cover the p-type region and the n-type region, and a second passivation film is disposed on a second main surface which is a surface opposite to the first main surface so as to cover the second main surface, the first passivation film and the second passivation film being formed with a compound containing oxide aluminum.