Rapid Screening of TOPCon Solar Cells for UV Degradation

Screening of advanced silicon photovoltaic architectures for performance loss induced by ultraviolet light exposure is motivated by increased use of UV-transparent front materials. Here we build on previous work that uses high intensity UV exposure to rapidly screen unencapsulated solar cells for UV degradation. We apply the rapid screening method to four batches of cells obtained from three different sources. Degradation varies across the different batches, ranging from mostly stable to 30% loss of efficiency at the highest exposure dose. Efficiency loss is related to changes in V<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">OC</inf> and I<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">SC</inf>, with no observed changes in the fill factor. Materials characterization of the as-received and degraded devices has commenced, with the intent of understanding how the composition of the passivation layer, and changes to the composition over time, contribute to the stability of the devices.