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The TOPCon solar cell design improves efficiency and reduces losses.
A new bifacial solar cell architecture developed by researchers at Soochow University, Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., and collaborating institutes could address long-standing efficiency limitations in TOPCon solar cells while also enabling more efficient tandem solar technologies.
The design combines tunnel oxide passivating contact (TOPCon) structures with perovskite materials, creating a hybrid architecture capable of reducing energy losses and improving performance.
“Our work is rooted in a fundamental limitation of current TOPCon solar cells,” Kun Gao and Prof. Xinbo Yang explained.
“In industrial TOPCon devices, a boron-diffused p+ emitter is still used on the front side, which introduces significant recombination losses and limits further efficiency improvements. A natural strategy is to replace this emitter with a localized TOPCon contact,” he continued.
TOPCon solar cells are already known for their high efficiency, but they come with a major trade-off. Traditional designs require thick polysilicon layers to maintain electrical contact during manufacturing, which increases optical absorption and reduces performance.
“A full-area p-type TOPCon layer requires a relatively thick doped polysilicon film to ensure good electrical contact during industrial firing, which leads to strong parasitic optical absorption on the front side,” Gao explained.
“This creates a fundamental trade-off in TOPCon technology between reducing recombination and minimizing optical losses.”
To overcome this limitation, the researchers redesigned both the front and rear passivating contacts.
Instead of using a full-area structure on the front side, they introduced a patterned n-type TOPCon contact that exists only beneath metal fingers. This “finger-type” architecture reduces optical absorption while maintaining strong electrical performance.
The team also improved the quality of the TOPCon contact layer by smoothing the silicon surface and using a gradient thermal field deposition process to improve crystal growth and doping efficiency.
One of the most significant outcomes of the study is the compatibility of the new TOPCon architecture with perovskite tandem solar cells. Tandem solar cells stack multiple layers with different bandgaps to capture more sunlight across the spectrum, leading to higher efficiency.
In testing, the industrial-size TOPCon prototype achieved a certified efficiency of 26.34%. When integrated into a perovskite/TOPCon tandem configuration, efficiency increased significantly.
“Importantly, the same TOPCon platform was further used as a bottom cell in monolithic perovskite/TOPCon tandems, enabling a certified efficiency of 32.73%,” Gao said.
“This demonstrates the strong compatibility of our design with next-generation tandem technologies,” he continued.
The researchers are now working to further improve the patterned front contacts and optimize rear contact performance. Future studies will also focus on improving tandem device stability and reducing optical losses in the silicon bottom cell.
“Ultimately, our goal is to develop TOPCon-based device architectures that can achieve both very high efficiency and long-term reliability at industrial scale,” the researchers said.
The study presents a potential pathway for next-generation solar cells that combine high efficiency with industrial manufacturing compatibility, which could play a significant role in the continued advancement of photovoltaic technology and large-scale renewable energy deployment.
Atharva is a full-time content writer with a post-graduate degree in media & amp; entertainment and a graduate degree in electronics & telecommunications. He has written in the sports and technology domains respectively. In his leisure time, Atharva loves learning about digital marketing and watching soccer matches. His main goal behind joining Interesting Engineering is to learn more about how the recent technological advancements are helping human beings on both societal and individual levels in their daily lives.
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