Front-side metallization of silicon solar cells by nickel plating and light induced silver plating

At present, screen-printing is the industrial method of choice for forming front-side contacts. Granted, the method is robust, but results in terms of contact width and contact formation, especially for high-efficiency solar cells, are not optimal. For forming these front-side contacts, a new process was developed, not requiring an etching step, but using a laser beam for direct writing of the contact pattern. By making use of the special properties of the semiconductor substrate, a metallising step can be simultaneously carried out. The basic process, involving deposition of nickel, then silver, is described