37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 525-528 We present an investigation of the contact formation through the widely used passivation layer stack comprised of aluminum oxide (AlOx) and silicon nitride (SiNy:H). The influence of different aluminum oxide layers deposited by either atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) or atomic layer deposition (ALD) on contact formation of screen printed silver contact paste on boron emitters is shown. Excellent contact resistivities below 1 mΩcm2 are achieved for both AlOx deposition methods. For APCVD based layers, the contact resistivity is independent of the layer thickness within the investigated range of (8...25) nm. Scanning electron microscopy is used to determine and qualitatively examine silver crystallite formation beneath screen printed silver contacts.
