Abstract
We investigate the thickness dependence of the passivation quality of silicon nitride (SiNx) films formed by catalytic chemical vapor deposition. The passivation quality of SiNx films, evaluated by measuring effective minority carrier lifetime (τeff), can be enhanced by post annealing, and show a significant thickness dependence. τeff increases with SiNx thickness up to 90 nm and shows no more significant improvement with further increase in SiNx thickness. Interface state density (Dit) shows high consistency with thickness dependence of τeff before and after annealing, whereas fixed charge density (Qf) rather decreases with increase in SiNx thickness. We propose a possible mechanism that SiNx films may release hydrogen (H) atoms during post annealing to terminate dangling bonds on the c-Si surface which leads to decrease in Dit. Increase of τeff with SiNx thickness before annealing might be caused by the annealing effect from a heated catalyzing wire.
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