Two kinds of Ag-pastes were prepared for integrating the bulk Si solar cell. One is the Ag-paste mixed with Pb-based glass frit and the other is that mixed with Pb-free glass frit. The major components in the silver paste were 84 wt% Ag, 2 wt% glass frit, 11 wt% solvent of buthyl-cabitol acetate, and 2 wt% the other additives. After fabricating the Ag-pastes, they were coated on the SiNx/n+/p- stacks of a commercial mono-Si substrate. The solar cell efficiency was 17.6% in case of the silver paste mixed with Pb-based glass frit, which was one of the world-best records in the technology. By the way, the efficiency was 16.2% in the solar cell integrated with the silver paste mixed with Pb-free glass frit. The lower performance in the Pb-free Ag-paste was caused by the higher serial resistance and the lower shunt resistance in comparison with the Pb-containing Ag paste.
Manufacturing and Thermal Process Optimization of Ag-paste for Fabricating High Efficiency Mono-Si Solar Cell