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Excellent Surface Passivation Quality on Crystalline Silicon Using Industrial‐Scale Direct‐Plasma TOPCon Deposition Technology
Author(s) -
Steinhauser Bernd,
Polzin JanaIsabelle,
Feldmann Frank,
Hermle Martin,
Glunz Stefan W.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
solar rrl
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.544
H-Index - 37
ISSN - 2367-198X
DOI - 10.1002/solr.201800068
Subject(s) - passivation , materials science , silicon nitride , layer (electronics) , silicon , deposition (geology) , doping , chemical vapor deposition , optoelectronics , analytical chemistry (journal) , carrier lifetime , crystalline silicon , composite material , chemistry , paleontology , chromatography , sediment , biology
Passivating contacts based on a thin SiO x layer and a doped Si layer (TOPCon) are an appealing choice for pushing the efficiency of Si solar cells. One way to deposit the doped Si layer is to utilize radio‐frequency direct plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition as commonly used in industry for the deposition of silicon nitride. However, due to the low operating frequency in the kHz range, there are concerns that ion bombardment might damage the thin SiO x layer and thus prevent suitable surface passivation. We demonstrate that this is not the case. Instead, the application of these layers on c‐Si results in excellent surface passivation. Minority carrier lifetimes exceeding the intrinsic bulk limit predicted by current models on 1 Ω cm n‐type were observed, out‐performing the reference layers. The excellent surface passivation results in an implied V OC of above 735 mV and an implied FF of almost 88% on 200 µm thick n‐type c‐Si. Furthermore, a lifetime test on 100 Ω cm n‐type c‐Si revealed an extraordinary lifetime of 190 ms (Δ n = 1 × 10 14 cm −3 ).