Laser Ablation Process Optimization for Selective Emitter Formation in Industrial PERC Solar Cells: A Multi-Objective Design-of-Experiments Study

Abstract

Selective emitter formation through laser-doped or laser-ablated regions improves contact resistance under metallization fingers while preserving high-quality passivation in inter-finger areas. Industrial implementation is sensitive to laser pulse energy, repetition rate, beam-spot geometry, scan speed, and the upstream phosphorus glass profile. This study presents a multi-objective design-of-experiments (DOE) optimization across these five factors, with response variables including contact-region sheet-resistance reduction, passivation-degradation extent, and process-window margin against absorber damage. A Pareto-front identification yields three operating regions optimized for throughput-priority, efficiency-priority, and reliability-priority manufacturing strategies. The methodology is transferable to laser-induced firing-through and laser-doped passivated contact processes in next-generation cell architectures.