Investigations on the long time behavior of the metastable boron–oxygen complex in crystalline silicon

Herguth, Axel; Schubert, Gunnar; Kaes, Martin; Hahn, Giso

doi:10.1002/pip.779

Cited by 166 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…Herguth et al have shown that active BO related defects can be transformed into a recombination inactive state being stable under solar cell operating conditions by applying a regeneration procedure consisting of a combination of carrier injection and slightly elevated temperatures [10,11]. Recent results suggest that hydrogen might be the key factor to fast regeneration processes [12,13]: It has been shown, that if more hydrogen is introduced into the silicon bulk realized e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of bound hydrogen states on BO-regeneration kinetics and consequences for high-speed regeneration processes

Wilking

Beckh

Ebert

et al. 2014

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

118

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a b s t r a c tRecombination active boron oxygen related defects typically limit the efficiency of solar cells made from boron doped, oxygen rich silicon. This limitation can be overcome by applying a regeneration process that requires slightly elevated temperatures, carrier injection, and the presence of hydrogen in the silicon substrate in order to regenerate quickly and completely.The influence of mid temperature steps up to 400 1C on the regeneration kinetics is investigated and the results can be explained with the efficacy of the regeneration process depending on the hydrogen bonding states prior to regeneration. Boron hydrogen pairs are found to be good candidates to be the relevant hydrogen source during regeneration. The long term stability of the regenerated state is tested under solar cell operating conditions, and the thermal activation energy of its destabilization is determined to be 1.25 70.05 eV.Limiting factors for high speed regeneration processes are discussed, and a high temperature/high illumination procedure is presented, allowing complete regeneration in less than 10 s. This makes regeneration feasible as an in line process in solar cell production.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of bound hydrogen states on BO-regeneration kinetics and consequences for high-speed regeneration processes

Wilking

Beckh

Ebert

et al. 2014

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

118

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“…6 Recently, much effort has been put into mitigating lightinduced degradation. Most solutions rely on avoiding the use of 1-2 X-cm boron-doped Cz silicon, 7 but Herguth et al 8 have developed a technique to actually remove LID from silicon. However, the technique is based on illuminating silicon above 90 C for extended periods.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Room-temperature method for minimizing light-induced degradation in crystalline silicon

Lindroos¹,

Yli-Koski²,

Haarahiltunen³

et al. 2012

Applied Physics Letters

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Although light-induced degradation (LID) in crystalline silicon is attributed to the formation of boron-oxygen recombination centers, copper contamination of silicon has recently been observed to result in similar degradation. As positively charged interstitial copper stays mobile at room temperature in silicon, we show that the bulk copper concentration can be reduced by depositing a large negative charge onto the wafer surface. Consequently, light-induced degradation is reduced significantly in both low- and high-resistivity boron-doped Czochralski-grown silicon.

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“…The same effect occurs in boron doped p type [7 9] as well as n type [10,11] silicon partially compensated or overcompensated with phos phorus or co doped with gallium. BO defects can be transformed into a recombination inactive state that is stable under carrier injection by the regeneration reaction that requires a combination of slightly elevated temperatures (typically 60 200°C) and carrier injection [12,13], applied to hydrogenated silicon wafers [14 16]. This reaction may be identified (after the first occurring degra dation reaction) by an asymptotically saturating recovery of the carrier lifetime or an asymptotical decrease of the defect density.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From simulation to experiment: Understanding BO-regeneration kinetics

Wilking

Forster²,

Herguth

et al. 2015

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

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a b s t r a c tRegeneration of boron oxygen related defects is investigated in differently compensated silicon wafers. It is shown for the first time that boron oxygen defects can be transformed into a stable regenerated state also in compensated n type silicon.The coupling between regeneration rate and the completeness of the regeneration reaction is simulated based on the 3 state model of BO defects. Maximum regeneration temperatures that can be applied are determined for differently regenerating samples. The results are used to develop a high speed process that can accelerate regeneration by two orders of magnitude without compromising neither the completeness of the regeneration process nor the stability of the resulting high minority carrier lifetime values.

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Investigations on the long time behavior of the metastable boron–oxygen complex in crystalline silicon

Cited by 166 publications

References 11 publications

Influence of bound hydrogen states on BO-regeneration kinetics and consequences for high-speed regeneration processes

Influence of bound hydrogen states on BO-regeneration kinetics and consequences for high-speed regeneration processes

Room-temperature method for minimizing light-induced degradation in crystalline silicon

From simulation to experiment: Understanding BO-regeneration kinetics

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