• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.335.2-335.2
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• 2016

The fixed negative charge of the Al2O3 passivation layer gives excellent passivation performance for both n-type and p-type silicon wafers. For the best passivation quality, annealing is known to be a prerequisite step and a lot of studies concerning annealing effect on the passivation characteristics have been performed. Meanwhile, for manufacturing a crystalline silicon solar cell, firing process is applied to the Al2O3 passivation layer. Therefore, study on not only annealing effect but also on firing effect is necessary. In this work, Al2O3 passivation performance (minority carrier lifetime) for p-type silicon wafer was evaluated with Quasi-Steady-State Photoconductance(QSSPC) measurement after annealing at different temperatures. For the samples which showed different aspects, C-V measurement was performed for the cause - whether it is due to the chemical effect or field-effect. The change in Al2O3 passivation property after firing processes was investigated and the mechanism for the change could be estimated.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2014

Different kinds of post-deposition annealing (PDA) by a rapid thermal process (RTP) are used to enhance the field-effect passivation of $Al_2O_3$ film in crystal Si solar cells. To characterize the effects of PDA on $Al_2O_3$ and the interface, metal-insulator semiconductor (MIS) devices were fabricated. The effects of PDA were characterized as functions of RTP temperature from $400{\sim}700^{\circ}C$ and RTP time from 30~120 s. A high temperature PDA can retard the passivation of thin $Al_2O_3$ film in c-Si solar cells. PDA by RTP at $400^{\circ}C$ results in better passivation than a PDA at $400^{\circ}C$ in forming gas ($H_2$ 4% in $N_2$) for 30 minutes. A high thermal budget causes blistering on $Al_2O_3$ film, which degrades its thermal stability and effective lifetime. It is related to the film structure, deposition temperature, thickness of the film, and annealing temperature. RTP shows the possibility of being applied to the PDA of $Al_2O_3$ film. Optimal PDA conditions should be studied for specific $Al_2O_3$ films, considering blistering.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.430-430
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• 2012

The surface recombination velocity of the silicon solar cell could be reduced by passivation with insulating layers such as $SiO_2$, SiNx, $Al_2O_3$, a-Si. Especially, the aluminium oxide has advantages over other materials at rear surface, because negative fixed charge via Al vacancy has an additional back surface field effect (BSF). It can increase the lifetime of the hole carrier in p-type silicon. The aluminium oxide thin film layer is usually deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique, which is expensive and has low deposition rate. In this study, ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering technique was adopted to overcome drawbacks of ALD technique. In addition, it has been known that by annealing aluminium oxide layer in nitrogen atmosphere, the negative fixed charge effect could be further improved. By using ICP-assisted reactive magnetron sputtering technique, oxygen to nitrogen ratio could be precisely controlled. Fabricated aluminium oxy-nitride (AlON) layer on silicon wafers were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the atomic concentration ratio and chemical states. The electrical properties of Al/($Al_2O_3$ or $SiO_2/Al_2O_3$)/Si (MIS) devices were characterized by the C-V measurement technique using HP 4284A. The detailed characteristics of the AlON passivation layer will be shown and discussed.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.581-588
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• 2013

This paper presents a study of the process temperature dependence of $Al_2O_3$ film grown by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a passivation layer in the crystalline Si (c-Si) solar cells. The deposition rate of $Al_2O_3$ film maintained almost the same until $250^{\circ}C$, but decreased from $300^{\circ}C$. $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ was found to have the highest negative fixed oxide charge density ($Q_f$) due to its O-rich condition and low hydroxyl group (-OH) density. After post-metallization annealing (PMA), $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ had the lowest slow and fast interface trap density. Actually, $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ showed the best passivation effects, that is, the highest excess carrier lifetime (${\tau}_{PCD}$) and lowest surface recombination velocity ($S_{eff}$) than other conditions. Therefore, $Al_2O_3$ film deposited at $250^{\circ}C$ exhibited excellent chemical and field-effect passivation properties for p-type c-Si solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.754-759
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• 2013

Aluminum oxide($Al_2O_3$) film deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) is known to supply excellent surface passivation properties on crystalline Si surfaces. Since $Al_2O_3$ has fixed negative charge, it forms effective surface passivation by field effect passivation on the rear side in p-type silicon solar cell. However, $Al_2O_3$ layer formed by ALD process needs very long process time, which is not applicable in mass production of silicon solar cells. In this paper, plasma-assisted ALD(PA-ALD) was applied to form $Al_2O_3$ to reduce the process time. $Al_2O_3$ synthesized by ALD on c-Si (100) wafers contains a very thin interfacial $SiO_2$ layer, which was confirmed by FTIR and TEM. To improve passivation quality of $Al_2O_3$ layer, the deposition temperature was changed in range of $150{\sim}350^{\circ}C$, then the annealing temperature and time were varied. As a result, the silicon wafer with aluminum oxide film formed in $250^{\circ}C$, $400^{\circ}C$ and 10 min for the deposition temperature, the annealing temperature and time, respectively, showed the best lifetime of 1.6ms. We also observed blistering with nanometer size during firing of $Al_2O_3$ deposited on p-type silicon.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.41-46
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• 2013

Efficient and inexpensive solar cells are necessary for photo-voltaic to be widely adopted for mainstream electricity generation. For this to occur, the recombination losses of charge carriers (i.e. electrons or holes) must be minimized using a surface passivation technique suitable for manufacturing. Recently it has been shown that aluminum oxide thin films are negatively charged dielectrics that provide excellent surface passivation of silicon solar cells to attract positive-charged holes. Especially aluminum oxide thin film is a quite suitable passivation on the rear side of p-type silicon solar cells. This paper, it demonstrate the interfacial microstructure and electrical properties of mono-crystalline silicon surface passivated by $Al_2O_3$ films during firing process as applied for screen-printed solar cells. The first task is a comparison of the interfacial microstructure and chemical bonds of PECVD $Al_2O_3$ and of PEALD $Al_2O_3$ films for the surface passivation of silicon. The second is to study electrical properties of double-stacked layers of PEALD $Al_2O_3$/PECVD SiN films after firing process in the temperature range of $650{\sim}950^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.724-728
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• 2002

Inductively-coupled $N_2$O plasma was utilized to grow silicon dioxide at low temperature and applied to fabricate polycrystalline-silicon thin film transistors. At $400^{\circ}C$, the thickness of oxide was limited to 5nm and the oxide contained Si≡N and ≡Si-N-Si≡ bonds. The nitrogen incorporation improved breakdown field to 10MV/cm and reduced the interface charge density to $1.52$\times$10^{11}$ $cm^2$ with negative charge. The $N_2$O plasma gate oxide enhanced the field effect mobility of polycrystalline thin film transistor, compared to $O_2$ plasma gate oxide, due to the reduced interface charge at the $Si/SiO_2$ interface and also due to the reduced trap density at Si grain boundaries by nitrogen passivation.