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Uniformity and Quality of Monocrystalline Silicon Passivation by Thin Intrinsic Amorphous Silicon in a New Generation Plasma-enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Reactor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Benjamin Strahm
Affiliation:
benjamin.strahm@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Yoann Andrault
Affiliation:
Yoann.andrault@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Derk Bäetzner
Affiliation:
derk.baetzner@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Damien Lachenal
Affiliation:
damien.lachenal@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Chloé Guérin
Affiliation:
chloe.guerin@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Manuela Kobas
Affiliation:
manuela.kobas@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Joachim Mai
Affiliation:
joachim.mai@roth-rau.de, Roth und Rau AG, Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Germany
Bruno Mendes
Affiliation:
bruno.mendes@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Thomas Schulze
Affiliation:
thomas.schulze@roth-rau.de, Roth und Rau AG, Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Germany
Guillaume Wahli
Affiliation:
guillaume.wahli@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Arthur Buechel
Affiliation:
arthur.buechel@roth-rau.ch, Roth und Rau Switzerland SA, Neuchatel, Switzerland
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Abstract

This work reports the first results of a new generation plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) reactor manufactured by Roth and Rau. This large area parallel plate reactor has been especially designed for the manufacturing of silicon heterojunction solar cells which are made of very thin amorphous silicon films over monocrystalline silicon substrates. Layer thickness uniformity below ± 3 % is reported for both intrinsic and doped layer over a 400 × 400 mm2 area. Moreover, it is shown that the passivation quality is excellent with life-times up to 4.15 ms on n-type FZ silicon substrates. A ± 0.6 % uniformity in open circuit voltage (mean value of 701.4 mV) is achieved over 32 devices having a 4 cm2 area and an average conversion efficiency of 19.5 %.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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