![]() The very first years saw a rapid and important increase of efficiency. The first solar cell produced by the Bell Laboratories in 1954 was a n-type, back contact, solar cell. N-type solar cells are built the other way around, with the n-type doped side serving as the basis of the solar cell. This helps form the p-n junction that will enable the flow of electricity in the cell. The top of the wafer is then negatively doped (n-type) with phosphorous, which has one electron more than silicium. Indeed, the wafer is doped with boron, which has one electron less than silicium. The term p-type refers to the fact that the cell is built on a positively charged (hence p-type) silicon base. It held the biggest size of the market for the last four decades. The p-type solar cell is the solar cell structure everyone knows. The differences between p-type and n-type solar cells While p-type mono and multi PERC are being developed, n-type wafers capacity is also on the rise, ITRPV forecasting a market share gain, albeit still well under the major technologies. Today, this distinction between p-type and n-type still holds as manufacturers take different routes along the value chain to compete on efficiency, cost and differentiating value propositions. The argument was then that p-type was cheaper. While the PERC term started to be mentioned to underline the difference of power with Al-BSF based products and to bring a sense of novelty, it became also usual to state that results were achieved on p-type solar cells because the difference in power was narrowing with n-type solar cells. But it is the 30+ years old PERC architecture, which enabled the University of New South Wales to hold the world record for decades, that finally gained traction on the market with a viable concept. We saw trials around Metal Wrap Through architectures, selective emitters were a hot topic for some time. Then solar cells manufacturers had to make choices to keep pushing efficiencies. This started to change when the limits of Al-BSF technology, which supported the industry’s growth for four decades, where becoming foreseeable. But for most of crystalline silicon modules manufacturers, relying on Al-BSF technology, whose incremental evolution was steadily bringing additional efficiency, there was not so much to say. There was of course companies like Sunpower or Panasonic promoting their different technologies and all the thin-film manufacturers battling over the benefits of CdTe, CIGS or amorphous silicon. Solar cell technology gets a lot of attentionĪ few years ago, the underlying technology of solar cells was not particularly featured in the presentation and argumentation of solar panels manufacturers.
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