Passivation of p+-Surfaces by PECVD Silicon Carbide Films - A Promising Method for Industrial Silicon Solar Cell Applications

摘要

We present first results of a surface passivation study of p~+-Si by amorphous SiC_x, deposited in a standard PECVD reactor. For comparison, thermally grown SiO_2 and PECVD-SiN_x layers with refractive indices of n=2.0 and n=2.4 were examined on the same test structures. While thermal SiO_2 exhibits passivating properties comparable to those on n~+-Si, PECVD-SiN_x is found to even deteriorate the surface passivation. On the other hand, PECVD-SiC_x yields, to our knowledge, the best p~+-Si pasivation so far obtained by an industrially relevant low temperature process.