High Quality Aluminum Oxide Passivation Layer for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells Deposited by Parallel-Plate Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Miyajima, Shinsuke; Irikawa, Junpei; Yamada, Akira; Konagai, Makoto

doi:10.1143/apex.3.012301

Cited by 104 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…[5][6][7]9 Al 2 O 3 , a dielectric, has large band gap (8.8 eV) and its films have excellent thermal and chemical stability and good adhesion with silicon. [14][15][16] Al 2 O 3 films can be deposited by several techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), 17 chemical vapor deposition (CVD), [18][19][20] plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), 21,22 sputtering 23 and atomic layer deposition (ALD). [4][5][6][7]9,24 ALD being a conformal deposition process provides high-quality thin films with precise control over the thickness.…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of deposition temperature of thermal ALD deposited Al2O3 films on silicon surface passivation

et al. 2015

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The effect of deposition temperature (Tdep) and subsequent annealing time (tanl) of atomic layer deposited aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films on silicon surface passivation (in terms of surface recombination velocity, SRV) is investigated. The pristine samples (as-deposited) show presence of positive fixed charges, QF. The interface defect density (Dit) decreases with increase in Tdep which further decreases with tanl up to 100s. An effective surface passivation (SRV<8 cm/s) is realized for Tdep ≥ 200 °C. The present investigation suggests that low thermal budget processing provides the same quality of passivation as realized by high thermal budget process (tanl between 10 to 30 min).

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Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of deposition temperature of thermal ALD deposited Al2O3 films on silicon surface passivation

et al. 2015

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“…In recent years, aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) thin films, mainly synthesized by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD), have been used to significantly improve solar cell efficiencies by providing effective surface passivation. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] On both n-and p-type Si surfaces, Al 2 O 3 induces surface recombination velocities, S eff , typically well below 5 cm/s. The effective passivation is related to a significant reduction in defect density at the Si interface (D it 10 11 eV À1 cm À2 ), after annealing the Al 2 O 3 films at relatively low temperatures ($400 C).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of annealing and Al2O3 properties on the hydrogen-induced passivation of the Si/SiO2 interface

Dingemans¹,

Einsele²,

Beyer³

et al. 2012

Journal of Applied Physics

142

131

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Annealing at moderate temperatures is required to activate the silicon surface passivation by Al2O3 thin films while also the thermal stability at higher temperatures is important when Al2O3 is implemented in solar cells with screenprinted metallization. In this paper, the relationship between the microstructure of the Al2O3 film, hydrogen diffusion, and defect passivation is explored in detail for a wide range of annealing temperatures. The chemical passivation was studied using stacks of thermally-grown SiO2 and Al2O3 synthesized by atomic layer deposition. Thermal effusion measurements of hydrogen and implanted He and Ne atoms were used to elucidate the role of hydrogen during annealing. We show that the passivation properties were strongly dependent on the annealing temperature and time and were significantly influenced by the Al2O3 microstructure. The latter was tailored by variation of the deposition temperature (Tdep = 50 °C–400 °C) with hydrogen concentration [H] between 1 and 13 at.% and mass density ρmass between 2.7 and 3.2 g/cm3. In contrast to films with intermediate material properties, the passivation by low- and high density films showed a reduced thermal stability at relatively high annealing temperatures (∼600 °C). These observations proved to be in good agreement with thermal effusion results of hydrogen and inert gas atoms that were also strongly dependent on film microstructure. We demonstrate that the temperature of maximum effusion decreased for films with progressively lower density (i.e., with increasing [H]). Therefore, the reduced thermal stability of the passivation for low-density hydrogen-rich ([H] >∼5 at. %) films can be attributed to a loss of hydrogen at relatively low annealing temperatures. In contrast, the lower initial [H] for dense Al2O3 films can likely explain the lower thermal stability associated with these films. The effusion measurements also allowed us to discuss the role of molecular- and atomic hydrogen during annealing.

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“…For solar cell application several passivation layers exist. Most commonly used are thermally grown silicon oxides [1] and passivation layers deposited via plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) such as aluminium oxide (AlO x ) [2,3] and silicon nitride (SiN) [4,5] which all allow for very low surface recombination velocities. Also double layer passivation systems consisting of two different silicon nitrides [6,7] or an amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer and a SiN layer [8,9] are applied.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For deposition of the SiriON layer a mixture of the reactant gases N 2 O, SiH 4 and H 2 is used. For deposition of the SiN layer the process gases are SiH 4 and NH 3 . Finally the samples are fired in an industrial-type fast firing oven with a peak set temperature of 850 8C.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of high-temperature treatment on the hydrogen distribution in silicon oxynitride/silicon nitride stacks for crystalline silicon surface passivation

Schwab

Hofmann

Heller

et al. 2013

Phys. Status Solidi A

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This work investigates a double layer stack system that can be used for surface passivation of crystalline silicon. The stack consists of amorphous silicon-rich silicon oxynitride and amorphous silicon nitride on top. Both layers are fabricated by means of plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition. We investigate the stack in terms of changes in the hydrogen content and distribution within the different stack layers due to a high temperature treatment. For that purpose the stack is studied by Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy and nuclear reaction analysis before and after fast firing at 850°C. Our results determine the bottom silicon oxynitride layer as very hydrogen-rich. Furthermore, we identify the silicon nitride capping layer as diffusion barrier to atomic hydrogen but still allowing an effusion of molecular hydrogen. We present a qualitative model that explains our findings and distinguishes between atomic and molecular hydrogen

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High Quality Aluminum Oxide Passivation Layer for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells Deposited by Parallel-Plate Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Cited by 104 publications

References 21 publications

Influence of deposition temperature of thermal ALD deposited Al2O3 films on silicon surface passivation

Influence of deposition temperature of thermal ALD deposited Al2O3 films on silicon surface passivation

Influence of annealing and Al2O3 properties on the hydrogen-induced passivation of the Si/SiO2 interface

Effects of high-temperature treatment on the hydrogen distribution in silicon oxynitride/silicon nitride stacks for crystalline silicon surface passivation

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