Excess-carrier recombination lifetime is a key parameter in silicon solar cell design and production. With the vast international use and recent standardization (SEMI PV13) of eddy-current wafer and brick silicon lifetime test instruments, it is important to quantify the inter- and intra-laboratory repeatability. This paper presents results of an international inter-laboratory study conducted with 24 participants to determine the precision of the SEMI PV13 eddy-current carrier lifetime measurement test method. Overall, the carrier recombination lifetime between-laboratory reproducibility was found to be within ±11% for quasi-steady-state (QSS) mode and ±8% for transient mode for wafer samples and within ±4% for bulk samples
Photoconductance measurements have been one of the most common ways to measure the lifetime in silicon for over 60 years. Since 1985, the most common method for doing calibrated lifetime measurements is using an eddy-current sensor to monitor photoconductance as a function of time and illumination, providing data that can be interpreted in terms of carrier density and hence lifetime. Here we present recent extensions to this measurement technique that have generalized the method. Bulk lifetime measurements on industrial samples are presented. The information available from the effects of grain boundaries on eddy-current measurements are summarized. Recent applications for the use of these instruments for measurement of mobility in compensated materials are also described.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.