Hydrogen passivation and silicon nitride deposition using an integrated LPCVD process

摘要

Hydrogen passivation and low pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) of silicon nitride (SiN{sub}x) have been efficiently combined in a hot-wall reactor. Atomic hydrogen is generated in a microwave-induced remote plasma from either ammonia or He/H{sub}2 gas mixture. The improvements achieved on multicrystalline material are significant. By applying hydrogen passivation, the effective minority carrier lifetime can be doubled with respect to standard LPCVD silicon nitride. Processed solar cells show a relative improvement of 5.7%. Most standard LPCVD reactors can easily be upgraded with the H-passivation option without any or only a small prolongation of process time.