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Title:
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Deposition of device quality silicon nitride with ultra high deposition rate (>7 nm/s) using hot wire CVD
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Author(s):
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Verlaan, V.; Houweling, Z.S.; Werf, C.H.M. van der; Romijn, I.G.; Weeber, A.W.; Goldbach, H.D.; Schropp, R.E.I.
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Published by:
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Publication date:
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ECN
Solar Energy
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12-12-2007
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ECN report number:
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Document type:
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ECN-W--07-045
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Article (scientific)
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Number of pages:
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3
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Published in: Thin Solid Films (Elsevier), , 2008, Vol.516, p.533-536.
Abstract:
The application of hot-wire (HW) CVD deposited silicon nitride (SiNx) as passivating anti-reflection coating on multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si)
solar cells is investigated. The highest efficiency reached is 15.7% for SiNx layers with an N/Si ratio of 1.20 and a high mass density of 2.9 g/cm3.
These cell efficiencies are comparable to the reference cells with optimized plasma enhanced (PE) CVD SiNx even though a very high deposition
rate of 3 nm/s is used. Layer characterization showed that the N/Si ratio in the layers determines the structure of the deposited films. And since the
volume concentration of Si-atoms in the deposited films is found to be independent of the N/Si ratio the structure of the films is determined by the
quantity of incorporated nitrogen. It is found that the process pressure greatly enhances the efficiency of the ammonia decomposition, presumably
caused by the higher partial pressure of atomic hydrogen. With this knowledge we increased the deposition rate to a very high 7 nm/s for device
quality SiNx films, much faster than commercial deposition techniques offer [S. von Aichberger, Photon Int. 3 (2004) 40].
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Silicon nitride; Hot-wire CVD; Multicrystalline solar cells; High deposition rate
www.sciencedirect.com
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