| Title |
PECVD Silicon Nitride Film Deposition and Annealing Optimization for Solar Cell Application |
| Authors |
Yoo, Jin-Su(Yoo, Jin-Su) ; Dhungel Suresh Kumar(Dhungel Suresh Kumar) ; Yi, Jun-Sin(Yi, Jun-Sin) |
| Keywords |
Antireflection coatings ; Silicon nitride ; Annealing ; Passivation ; Solar cells |
| Abstract |
Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) is a well established technique for the deposition of hydrogenated film of silicon nitride (SiNx:H), which is commonly used as an antireflection coating as well as passivating layer in crystalline silicon solar cell. PECVD-SiNx:H films were investigated by varying the deposition and annealing conditions to optimize for the application in silicon solar cells. By varying the gas ratio (ammonia to silane), the silicon nitride films of refractive indices 1.85 - 2.45 were obtained. The film deposited at 450°C showed the best carrier lifetime through the film deposition rate was not encouraging. The film deposited with the gas ratio of 0.57 showed the best carrier lifetime after annealing at a temperature of 800°C. The single crystalline silicon solar cells fabricated in conventional industrial production line applying the optimized film deposition and annealing conditions on large area substrate of size 125mm×125mm (pseudo square) was found to have the conversion efficiencies as high as 17.05 %. Low cost and high efficiency silicon solar cells fabrication sequence has also been explained in this paper. |