Work

Passivation quality of a stoichiometric SiNx single passivation layer on crystalline silicon prepared by catalytic chemical vapor deposition and successive annealing

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: A silicon nitride (SiN x ) single passivation layer, prepared by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (Cat-CVD) and successive annealing, shows high passivation quality on crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers. Effective minority carrier lifetime (τeff) monotonically increases with increase in deposition substrate temperature (T s) for samples passivated by as-deposited SiN x films, while more significant increase in τeff by annealing tends to be seen for the samples with SiN x films deposited at lower T s. The τeff obtained for the sample deposited at T s of 100 °C and pressure (P) of 10 Pa, after annealing at 350 °C for 30 min in N2, is about 3.0 ms, corresponding to a surface recombination velocity (SRV) of 5.0 cm/s. According to measured H content and fixed charge density (Q f) in the SiN x films, Q f partly contributes to the passivation quality of the films particularly before annealing, while H content plays an important role on improving passivation quality of the films after annealing.

Source: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics

DOI: 10.7567/jjap.53.022301

Authors: Trinh Cham Thi, Koichi Koyama, Keisuke Ohdaira, Hideki Matsumura

Institutions: Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency

Language: English

Topic: Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology

OpenAlex ID: W2042840458