Light-Induced Degradation Mechanisms in Boron-Doped Czochralski Silicon Wafers Used for High-Efficiency PERC Solar Cells

Abstract

Light-induced degradation (LID) caused by boron-oxygen complex formation remains a persistent reliability constraint for boron-doped Czochralski (Cz) silicon used in passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) solar cells. This study presents a coupled experimental and modeling investigation of the LID kinetics across a wafer-resistivity range of 0.5 to 3.0 ohm-centimeter, using minority carrier lifetime spectroscopy and capture-cross-section deconvolution to isolate the slow and fast LID components. We propose a unified rate equation that captures the dependence on injection level, oxygen interstitial concentration, and substitutional boron, and we validate the framework against a multi-vendor wafer corpus. The framework provides a quantitative basis for material specification, process-window selection, and LID-regeneration recipe design at the module level. Implications for emerging gallium-doped substitutes are discussed alongside long-term field performance projections under temperate and tropical climates.