Annealing for damage free laser processing for high efficiency solar cells

Abstract

Annealing solutions providing damage-free laser patterning utilizing auxiliary heating to anneal laser damaged ablation regions are provided herein. Ablation spots on an underlying semiconductor substrate are annealed during or after pulsed laser ablation patterning of overlying transparent passivation layers.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for patterning an electrically insulating layer on a semiconductor substrate, said method comprising:
 providing a semiconductor substrate having n-type doping;   depositing a first layer of borosilicate glass or a borosilicate/undoped glass stack on said semiconductor substrate;   selectively ablating said first layer of borosilicate glass or borosilicate/undoped glass stack with a pulsed laser in a first emitter ablation pattern comprising a plurality of first ablation spots;   annealing said first ablation spots;   depositing a second layer of borosilicate glass or a borosilicate/undoped glass stack on said first layer of borosilicate glass or a borosilicate/undoped glass stack;   selectively ablating said second layer of borosilicate glass or borosilicate/undoped glass stack with a pulsed laser in a second base ablation pattern comprising a plurality of second ablation spots; and,   annealing said second ablation spots.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said annealing of said first ablation spots and said annealing of said second ablation spots are formed as overlapping ablation spots. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said annealing of said first ablation spots and said annealing of said second ablation spots are formed as non-overlapping ablation spots 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said annealing of said first ablation spots and said annealing of said second ablation spots anneals the wafer surface. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said annealing of said first ablation spots and said annealing of said second ablation spots melts a thickness of the surface of the wafer. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said annealing of said first ablation spots forms the high-low selective emitter junction. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said annealing of said second ablation spots forms the high-low selective base junction. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said ablation is performed using a pulsed picoseconds laser and said annealing is performed using pulsed nanosecond laser.