“Zero-charge” SiO2/Al2O3 stacks for the simultaneous passivation of n+ and p+ doped silicon surfaces by atomic layer deposition

Loo, van de Bwh Bas; Knoops, Hcm Harm; Dingemans, G Gijs; Janssen, G.J.M.; Lamers, M.W.P.E.; Romijn, I.G.; Weeber, A.W.; Kessels, Wmm Erwin

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2015.07.040

Cited by 26 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…He reported SRVs ∼3.6 cm s −1 on 2–3 Ωcm n‐type silicon. The mechanisms of passivation were similar to those on single AlO x layer, with the advantage that the negative charge built at the SiO x /AlO x interface exceeds the positive charge at the SiO x /Si interface, making this structure suitable to passivate n‐type and p‐type silicon surface simultaneously .…”

Section: Materials and Methods For Silicon Surface Passivationmentioning

confidence: 90%

Dielectric surface passivation for silicon solar cells: A review

Bonilla

Hoex

Hamer

et al. 2017

Physica Status Solidi (a)

235

161

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Silicon wafer solar cells continue to be the leading photovoltaic technology, and in many places are now providing a substantial portion of electricity generation. Further adoption of this technology will require processing that minimises losses in device performance. A fundamental mechanism for efficiency loss is the recombination of photo-generated charge carriers at the unavoidable cell surfaces. Dielectric coatings have been shown to largely prevent these losses through a combination of different passivation mechanisms. This review aims to provide an overview of the dielectric passivation coatings developed in the past two decades using a standardised methodology to characterise the metrics of surface recombination across all techniques and materials. The efficacy of a large set of materials and methods has been evaluated using such metrics and a discussion on the current state and prospects for further surface passivation improvements is provided.

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Section: Materials and Methods For Silicon Surface Passivationmentioning

confidence: 90%

Dielectric surface passivation for silicon solar cells: A review

Bonilla

Hoex

Hamer

et al. 2017

Physica Status Solidi (a)

235

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…15,16 Interestingly, ALD SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 stacks have also emerged as an alternative passivation scheme for n þ Si. 17 The ALD SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 stacks do not exhibit a high negative Q f , as a sufficiently thick SiO 2 layer prevents the injection of electrons from the c-Si bulk into the Al 2 O 3 . 18 Moreover, the stack provides excellent levels of chemical passivation with D it <10 11 eV -1 cm -2 ; it can be deposited at low temperatures and with a high conformality over surfaces with high roughness.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that a SiO 2 thickness of 4-5 nm has proven to be sufficient for optimized passivation of n þ Si in previous work. 17 Immediately after deposition of SiO 2 , the Al 2 O 3 capping layer was deposited without vacuum break. Next, the samples received a postdeposition anneal at 400 C in N 2 ambient for 10 min.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface passivation of n-type doped black silicon by atomic-layer-deposited SiO2/Al2O3 stacks

Loo

Ingenito

Verheijen

et al. 2017

Applied Physics Letters

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Black silicon (b-Si) nanotextures can significantly enhance the light absorption of crystalline silicon solar cells. Nevertheless, for a successful application of b-Si textures in industrially relevant solar cell architectures, it is imperative that charge-carrier recombination at particularly highly n-type doped black Si surfaces is further suppressed. In this work, this issue is addressed through systematically studying lowly and highly doped b-Si surfaces, which are passivated by atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3 films or SiO2/Al2O3 stacks. In lowly doped b-Si textures, a very low surface recombination prefactor of 16 fA/cm2 was found after surface passivation by Al2O3. The excellent passivation was achieved after a dedicated wet-chemical treatment prior to surface passivation, which removed structural defects which resided below the b-Si surface. On highly n-type doped b-Si, the SiO2/Al2O3 stacks result in a considerable improvement in surface passivation compared to the Al2O3 single layers. The atomic-layer-deposited SiO2/Al2O3 stacks therefore provide a low-temperature, industrially viable passivation method, enabling the application of highly n- type doped b-Si nanotextures in industrial silicon solar cells.

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“…[28], [29] Therefore, in particular excellent chemical passivation of the rear surface of IBC cells is preferred to avoid surface recombination at these regions near the pn-junction. In this work, it was found that significant pn-recombination could avoided when using the Al 2 O 3 /SiN x passivation scheme.…”

Section: Results On Mercury Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%