Since the temperature of a photovoltaic (PV) module is not consistent as it was estimated at a standard test condition, the thermal stability of the solar cell parameters determines the temperature dependence of the PV module. Fill factor loss analysis of crystalline silicon solar cell is one of the most efficient methods to diagnose the dominant problem, accurately. In this study, the fill factor analysis method and the double-diode model of a solar cell was applied to analyze the effect of J₀₁, J₀₂, R_s, and R_sh on the fill factor in details. The temperature dependence of the parameters was compared through the passivated emitter rear cell (PERC) of the industrial scale solar cells. As a result of analysis, PERC cells showed different temperature dependence for the fill factor loss of the J₀₁ and J₀₂ as temperatures rose. In addition, we confirmed that fill factor loss from the J₀₁ and J₀₂ at elevated temperature depends on the initial state of the solar cells. The verification of the fill factor loss analysis was conducted by comparing to the fitting results of the injection dependent-carrier lifetime.

Ni/Cu/Ag contact formed by plating has continuously been studied as a future metallization technique of solar cells due to the lower cost of material and better electrical performance compared with the screen-printed Ag contact. For the metallization of samples, native oxide on a laser-patterned Si area was etched with a buffered oxide etch solution for uniform plating. A Ni seed layer for Cu plating was deposited by using alkaline electroless plating. Afterward, a Cu–Ag metal stack was plated by light-induced plating followed by annealing in a tube furnace with an ${{\rm{N}}_2}$ gas atmosphere. This annealing process forms NiSi _x , which enhances contact resistance and adhesion. However, Ni penetration through the emitter layer can produce shunting paths, which decrease cell performance. In this experiment, 2.6 N/mm was obtained as the highest adhesion result. In addition, voids that can degrade adhesion were observed at the interface of Cu–Ag due to the Kirkendall effect. According to the experiment's results, the suggestion of annealing condition was discussed to have good electrical and physical properties of plated Ni/Cu/Ag front contact.

Over the last few years, the silicon photovoltaic industry has been searching for efficient technologies to reduce the cost of cost/Wpeak by improving their conversion efficiency. However, with the silicon solar cell efficiency approaching the theoretical limit, it has become important to increase the efficiency distribution of cells by managing the loss factors existing in the production process. Although some companies are managing the efficiency distribution through in-line analysis equipment, a preventive action for reducing process defects has not yet been accomplished. To prevent process defects in advance, big data management is required to correlate the process conditions and solar cell parameters. Hence, an analysis method that can simply evaluate the detailed properties of completed solar cells is a key technique in future PV industries. In this paper, we introduce an advanced injection-dependent carrier lifetime analysis logic that can subdivide detailed recombination factors by fitting the carrier lifetime graph obtained through Suns-Voc measurement with a theoretical graph. This analysis method was verified by quantitatively evaluating the gains of 160 commercially manufactured solar cells. The results show that the proposed method helps in determining the process priority for improving the efficiency distribution and provides a research direction for increasing the absolute efficiency.