In this study, the influence on the surface passivation properties of crystalline silicon according to silicon wafer thickness, and the correlation with a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cell performances were investigated. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers show poor passivation properties because of the doping elements, such as boron(B) and phosphorous(P), which result in a low minority carrier lifetime (MCLT). A decrease in open circuit voltage (Voc) was observed when the wafer thickness was thinned from 170μm to 50μm. On the other hand, wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer showed high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The implied Voc of the ITO/p a-Si:H/i a-Si:H/n c-Si wafer/i a-Si:H/n a-Si:H/ITO stacked layers was 0.715 V for 50μm c-Si substrate, and 0.704 V for 170μm c-Si. The Voc in the heterojunction solar cells increased with decreases in the substrate thickness. The high quality passivation property on the c-Si led to an increasing of Voc in the thinner wafer. Short circuit current decreased as the substrate became thinner because of the low optical absorption for long wavelength light. In this paper, we show that high quality passivation of c-Si plays a role in heterojunction solar cells and is important in the development of thinner wafer technology.

The a-Si:H/c-Si hetero-junction (HJ) solar cells have a variety of advantages in efficiency and fabrication processes. It has already demonstrated about 23% in R&D scale and more than 20% in commercial production. In order to further reduce the fabrication cost of HJ solar cells, fabrication processes should be simplified more than conventional methods which accompany separate processes of front and rear sides of the cells. In this study, we propose a simultaneous deposition of intrinsic thin a-Si:H layers on both sides of a wafer by dual hot wire CVD (HWVCD). In this system, wafers are located between tantalum wires, and a-Si:H layers are simultaneously deposited on both sides of the wafer. By using this scheme, we can reduce the process steps and time and improve the efficiency of HJ solar cells by removing surface contamination of the wafers. We achieved about 16% efficiency in HJ solar cells incorporating intrinsic a-Si:H buffers by dual HWCVD and p/n layers by PECVD.

In this study, we inserted a Zn buffer layer into a AZO/p-type a-si:H layer interface in order to lower the contact resistance of the interface. For the Zn layer, the deposition was conducted at 5 nm, 7 nm and 10 nm using the rf-magnetron sputtering method. The results were compared to that of the AZO film to discuss the possibility of the Zn layer being used as a transparent conductive oxide thin film for application in the silicon heterojunction solar cell. We used the rf-magnetron sputtering method to fabricate Al 2 wt.% of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). We analyzed the electro-optical properties of the ZnO as well as the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer. After inserting a buffer layer into the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layers to enhance the interface properties, we measured the contact resistance of the layers using a CTLM (circular transmission line model) pattern, the depth profile of the layers using AES (auger electron spectroscopy), and the changes in the properties of the AZO thin film through heat treatment. We investigated the effects of the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer on the characteristics of silicon heterojunction solar cells and the way to improve the interface properties. When depositing AZO thin film on a-Si layer, oxygen atoms are diffused from the AZO thin film towards the a-Si layer. Thus, the characteristics of the solar cells deteriorate due to the created oxide film. While a diffusion of Zn occurs toward the a-Si in the case of AZO used as TCO, the diffusion of In occurs toward a-Si in the case of ITO used as TCO.

This paper investigates the dependence of a-Si:H/c-Si passivation and heterojunction solar cell performances on various cleaning processes of silicon wafers. It is observed that the passivation quality of a-Si:H thin-films on c-Si wafers depends highly on the initial H-termination properties of the wafer surface. The effective minority carrier lifetime (MCLT) of highly H-terminated wafer is beneficial for obtaining high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers have low MCLT regardless of the initial H-termination quality. On the other hand, the MCLT of wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer shows sensitive variation with initial cleaning and H-termination schemes. By applying the improved cleaning processes, we can obtain an MCLT of 100μsec after H-termination and above 600μsec after i a-Si:H thin film deposition. By adapting improved cleaning processes and by improving passivation and doped layers, we can fabricate a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cells with an active area conversion efficiency of 18.42%, which cells have an open circuit voltage of 0.670V, short circuit current of 37.31 mA/cm2 and fill factor of 0.7374. These cells show more than 20% pseudo efficiency measured by Suns-Voc with an elimination of series resistance.

The effect of annealing under argon atmosphere on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films deposited at room temperature and 300˚C using Radio Frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering has been investigated. For the films deposited at room temperature, there was not any increase in hydrogen content and optical band gap of the films, and as a result, quality of the films was not improved under any annealing conditions. For the films deposited at 300˚C, on the other hand, significant increases in hydrogen content and optical band gap were observed, whereas values of microstructure parameter and dark conductivity were decreased upon annealing below 300˚C. In this study, it was proposed that the Si-HX bonding strength is closely related to deposition temperature. Also, the improvement in optical, electrical and structural properties of the films deposited at 300˚C was originated from thermally activated hydrogen bubbles, which were initially trapped at microvoids in the films.

SiH4를 반응물질로 사용하여 electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(ECR-PECVD)로 실리콘 기판위에 증착한 수소화 비정질 실리콘(a-Si:H)으로부터 가시 photoluminescence(PL) 가 관찰되었다. a-si:H/Si로 부터의 PL은 다공질실리콘으로부터의 PL과 유사하였다. 급속열처리에 의해 500˚C에서 2분간 산소분위기에서 어닐링된 시편의 수소함량은 1~2%로 줄어들었고 시편은 가시 PL을 보여주지 않았는데 이는 a-Si:H의 PL과정에서 수소가 중요한 역할을 한다는 것을 뜻한다. 증착된 a-Si:H의 두께가 증가함에 따라 PL의 세기는 감소하였다. SiH4를 사용하여 ECR-PECVD에 의해 Si상에 증착된 a-Si:H로부터의 가시 PL은 Si과 증착된 a-Si:H막 사이에 증착이 이루어지는 동안에 형성된 수소화실리콘으로부터 나오는 것으로 추론된다.