Passivated Emitter and Rear Totally Diffused: PERT Solar Cell-An Overview

An overview of the Passivated Emitter and Rear Totally Diffused (PERT) solar cell is presented, which is a member of Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact (PERC) family. Due to its outstanding properties, n-type PERT is considered as a promising candidate in photovoltaics (PV). In recent years, research efforts have been devoted towards industrialization of PERT mostly based on n-type substrates to benefit from its inherent advantages. In particular, the IMEC's n-PERT developed with Jolywood, a 23.2% certified efficiency of the front side has been achieved which is almost the highest efficiency for industrial n-PERT. Currently research is focused on bifacial n-type PERT cells that are already manufactured industrially and are now in mass-produced in industry. This review is focused on the experimental approach towards monofacial PERT cells with a historical overview, PERT's structure, passivation scheme, contacts formation, light trapping and antireflection coating scheme and their corresponding process steps and approaches.