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ECN publication
Title:
Deposition of µc-Si:H by Microwave PECVD - Influence of process conditions on layer properties
 
Author(s):
 
Published by: Publication date:
ECN Solar Energy 11-9-2006
 
ECN report number: Document type:
ECN-RX--06-029 Conference Paper
 
Number of pages: Full text:
4 Download PDF  

Presented at: 21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, Dresden, Germany, 4-8 september 2006.

Abstract:
Microwave PECVD (MWPECVD) is a well applicable deposition technique for large area and high rate deposition. Therefore, it is a very promising method for industrial scale fabrication of microcrystalline (µc-Si:H) and amorphous (a-Si:H) silicon solar cells. We have investigated the addition of argon (Ar) in the MWPECVD process and developed a start-up procedure of the deposition, which both stabilize the microwave plasma on different time scale and, therefore, improve the reproducibility of the process. It is shown that the material properties of the silicon layers deteriorate if one partly substitutes H2 by Ar during the deposition. In conclusion a MWPECVD process without Ar should be developed. The new start-up procedure leads to silicon layers of low defect density as the analysis of electrical (sphoto, sdark) and optical (a @ 0.8 eV, FTPS) measurements indicates. It ensures a stabilized plasma when the deposition is started. Further experiments indicate the need of a substrate temperature of T = 200°C or lower for the deposition of µc-Si:H-, and a-Si:H-layers with improved optical and electrical properties.


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