The amazing improvement of silicon heterojunction technology: ready for a true mass market launch

Silicon heterojunction solar cells have less manufacturing steps and have allowed achieving higher efficiency than PERC cells. However the market has been slow in taking up the technology. Here we discuss some of the obstacles that have been overcome in the last 10 years and show why the technology is now more ready than ever for a mass market launch. This bases on improvements at the device level reaching 24% with few process steps, on the availability of high-quality low cost n-type c-Si wafers, on improved metallization solutions, and on the availability of production solutions.