Study of sintering behavior of silver front side metallization pastes

The sintering behavior of screen printed front side silver contacts on silicon solar cells was studied by adding different lead containing additives to the silver paste. We added lead in the form of an element, three different oxides and in the form of glass. The pastes were studied with in-situ optical microscopy during the sintering process, crystallite formation and densification using scanning electron microcopy, contact resistance measurements to evaluate the metal-semiconductor contact of solar cell structures and finally with simultaneous thermal analysis. Results show that the sintering density is dependent upon the lead additive and that the oxide is necessary to etch through the anti-reflection coating.