Review of Ni-Cu Based Front Side Metallization for c-Si Solar Cells

Table 6

Methods for characterizing background plating.

No.	Characterization method	Characterization technique that can be used	Information obtained
1	Surface morphology Studies	SEM and optical microscopy	Size of the deposits and density quantification possible
2	Optical measurements	UV/V is spectroscopy setup with an integrating sphere	Shading losses can be estimated
3	Elemental analysis	Energy dispersive analysis, total reflection X-ray fluorescence	Constituents of the deposits can be known and density can be quantified
4	Luminescence imaging	Lock-in thermography, photoluminescence, electroLuminescence	Localized shunt formation can be detected
5	Quasi-steady state Photoconductance studies	Life time and Suns-𝑉oc studies	Variation in life time due to defect introduction and impact on passivation properties possible. Shunt creation can be determined