Low surface recombination velocity by low-absorption silicon nitride on c-Si

IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

Volumn 3, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 554-559

  Wan, Yimao ^a   McIntosh, Keith R ^b   Thomson, Andrew F ^a   Cuevas, Andres ^a  

^a AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^b PV Lighthouse   (Australia)

Author keywords

Absorption; amorphous materials; charge carrier lifetime; silicon

Indexed keywords

ABSORPTION COEFFICIENTS; CAPACITANCE VOLTAGE MEASUREMENTS; DENSITY OF INTERFACE STATE; DEPOSITION PRESSURES; FRONT SURFACES; HIGH-EFFICIENCY SOLAR CELLS; KEY PROCESS; N TYPE SILICON; P-TYPE; PHOTOGENERATED CURRENT DENSITY; SHOCKLEY-READ-HALL MODELS; SHORT WAVELENGTHS; SURFACE PASSIVATION; SURFACE RECOMBINATION VELOCITIES; SURFACE RECOMBINATIONS; UPPER LIMITS;

ABSORPTION; AMORPHOUS MATERIALS; CHARGE CARRIERS; MOS CAPACITORS; OPTIMIZATION; PASSIVATION; SILICON; SOLAR CELLS; SURFACE DEFECTS;

SILICON NITRIDE;

EID: 84871762527     PISSN: 21563381     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2012.2215014     Document Type: Article

References (28)

1. A. G. Aberle, "Overview on SiN surface passivation of crystalline silicon solar cells," Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, vol. 65, no. 1-4, pp. 239-248, 2001.
2. A. Richter, F. Werner, J. Giesecke, A. Cuevas, J. Schmidt, and S. W. Glunz, "Auger recombination in crystalline silicon: Improved modeling based on experimental lifetime spectroscopy," to be published.
3. T. Lauinger, J. Schmidt, A. G. Aberle, and R. Hezel, "Record low surface recombination velocities on 1 Omega cm p-silicon using remote plasma silicon nitride passivation," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 68, no. 9, pp. 1232-1234, 1996. (Pubitemid 126684140)
4. T. Lauinger, J. Moschner, A. G. Aberle, and R. Hezel, "Optimization and characterization of remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition silicon nitride for the passivation of p-type crystalline silicon surfaces," J. Vac. Sci. Technol., A: Vac. Surf. Films, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 530-543, 1998.
5. F. W. Chen, T. T. A. Li, and J. E. Cotter, "PECVD silicon nitride surface passivation for high-efficiency N-type silicon solar cells," in Proc. IEEE 4th World Conf. Photovoltaic Energy Convers., Waikaloa, HI, May 2006, pp. 1020-1023.
6. S. Duttagupta, B. Hoex, F. Lin, T. Mueller, and A. Aberle, "High-quality surface passivation of low-resistivity p-type c-Si by hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride deposited by industrial-scale microwave PECVD," in Proc. 37th IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf., Jun. 2011, pp. 001421-001423.
7. J. Schmidt and M. Kerr, "Highest-quality surface passivation of lowresistivity p-type silicon using stoichiometric PECVD silicon nitride," Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, vol. 65, no. 1-4, pp. 585-591, 2001.
8. J. Schmidt, M. Kerr, and A. Cuevas, "Surface passivation of silicon solar cells using plasma-enhanced chemical-vapour-deposited SiN films and thin thermal SiO2/plasma SiN stacks," Semicond. Sci. Technol., vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 164-170, 2001. (Pubitemid 32259318)
9. M. J. Kerr and A. Cuevas, "Recombination at the interface between silicon and stoichiometric plasma silicon nitride," Semicond. Sci. Technol., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 166-172, 2002. (Pubitemid 34172785)
10. Y. Wan, K. McIntosh, A. Thomson, and A. Cuevas, "Optimisation of optical transmission and surface passivation using plasma silicon nitride," to be published.
11. R. B. M. Girisch, R. P. Mertens, and R. F. De Keersmaecker, "Determination of Si-SiO2 interface recombination parameters using a gate-controlled point-junction diode under illumination," IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 203-222, Feb. 1988.
12. R. N. Hall, "Electron-hole recombination in germanium," Phys. Rev., vol. 87, no. 2, pp. 387-387, 1952.
13. Y. Wan, K. McIntosh, and A. Thomson, "Characterizations of stress in amorphous silicon nitride and implications to c-Si surface passivation," presented at the 38th IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf., Austin, TX, 2012.
14. J. Tan, D. Macdonald, F. Rougieux, and A. Cuevas, "Accurate measurement of the formation rate of iron-boron pairs in silicon," Semicond. Sci. Technol., vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 055019-1-055019-5, 2011.
15. R. A. Sinton and A. Cuevas, "Contactless determination of current-voltage characteristics and minority-carrier lifetimes in semiconductors from quasi-steady-state photoconductance data," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 69, no. 17, pp. 2510-2512, 1996. (Pubitemid 126595545)
16. S. W. Glunz, D. Biro, S. Rein, and W. Warta, "Field-effect passivation of the SiO2 Si interface," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 86, no. 1, pp. 683-691, 1999.
17. M. J. Kerr and A. Cuevas, "General parameterization of Auger recombination in crystalline silicon," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 91, no. 4, pp. 2473-2480, 2002.
18. P. P. Altermatt, J. Schmidt, G. Heiser, and A. G. Aberle, "Assessment and parameterisation of Coulomb-enhanced Auger recombination coefficients in lowly injected crystalline silicon," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 82, no. 10, pp. 4938-4944, 1997. (Pubitemid 127560212)
19. S. K. O'Leary, S. R. Johnson, and P. K. Lim, "The relationship between the distribution of electronic states and the optical absorption spectrum of an amorphous semiconductor: An empirical analysis," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 82, no. 7, pp. 3334-3340, 1997. (Pubitemid 127590116)
20. R. Castagńe and A. Vapaille, "Description of the SiO2-Si interface properties by means of very low frequency MOS capacitance measurements," Surf. Sci., vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 157-193, 1971.
21. A. Aberle, Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells: Advanced Surface Passivation and Analysis. Sydney, Australia: Univ. New South Wales, 1999.
22. S. Dauwe, J. Schmidt, A. Metz, and R. Hezel, "Fixed charge density in silicon nitride films on crystalline silicon surfaces under illumination," in Proc. 29th IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf., 2002, pp. 162-165.
23. S. Steingrube, P. P. Altermatt, D. S. Steingrube, J. Schmidt, and R. Brendel, "Interpretation of recombination at c-Si/SiNx interfaces by surface damage," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 108, no. 1, pp. 014506-1-014506-9, 2010.
24. J. Schmidt, F. M. Schuurmans, W. C. Sinke, S. W. Glunz, and A. G. Aberle, "Observation of multiple defect states at silicon-silicon nitride interfaces fabricated by low-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 252-254, 1997. (Pubitemid 127650520)
25. J. Schmidt and A. G. Aberle, "Carrier recombination at silicon-silicon nitride interfaces fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 85, no. 7, pp. 3626-3633, 1999. (Pubitemid 129310683)
26. S. Duttagupta, F. Ma, B. Hoex, T. Mueller, and A. G. Aberle, "Optimised antireflection coatings using silicon nitride on textured silicon surfaces based on measurements and multidimensional modeling," presented at the Symp. Int. Conf. Mater. Adv. Technol., Singapore, 2011.
27. S. C. Baker-Finch and K. R. McIntosh, "A freeware program for precise optical analysis of the front surface of a solar cell," in Proc. 35th IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf., Jun. 2010, pp. 002184-002187.
28. K. R. McIntosh, J. N. Cotsell, J. S. Cumpston, A. W. Norris, N. E. Powell, and B. M. Ketola, "An optical comparison of silicone and EVA encapsulants for conventional silicon PV modules: A ray-tracing study," in Proc. 34th IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf., Philadelphia, PA, Jun. 2009, pp. 000544-000549.