High‐quality surface passivation of silicon solar cells in an industrial‐type inline plasma silicon nitride deposition system

Abstract

AbstractWe have studied the surface passivation of silicon by deposition of silicon nitride (SiN) in an industrial‐type inline plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) reactor designed for the continuous coating of silicon solar cells with high throughput. An optimization study for the passivation of low‐resistivity p‐type silicon has been performed exploring the dependence of the film quality on key deposition parameters of the system. With the optimized films, excellent passivation properties have been obtained, both on undiffused p‐type silicon and on phosphorus‐diffused n+ emitters. Using a simple design, solar cells with conversion efficiencies above 20% have been fabricated to prove the efficacy of the inline PECVD SiN. The passivation properties of the films are on a par with those of high‐quality films prepared in small‐area laboratory PECVD reactors. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.