Evaluation of the laser melting process of different materials for the front-side metallisation of silicon solar cells

This work evaluates the laser-assisted metallization process based on the melting/sintering of metallic powders for the formation of front-side electrical contacts for silicon solar cells, as a part of a two-step metallization concept without masks or photo-lithographical definition. A metallic seed layer is formed by a laser beam and then thickened by lightinduced silver plating [1]. The deposition of a homogeneous powder coating was found to be the crucial requirement for a reproducible process.