OPTIMIZATION OF SILICON-OXYNITRIDE THIN FILMS FOR CRYSTALLINE SILICON (C-Si) PERC CELL

2022-6
Canar, Hasan Hüseyin
PECVD deposited SiNx has been used in PV industry especially for PERC solar cell as anti-reflection coating (ARC) and passivating layer [1]. However, its limited optical and electrical properties create a barrier for achieving higher solar cell efficiencies. For that reason, an alternative is introduced that is SiOxNy thin film with adjustable refractive index can be tuned as low as SiO2 [2]. In this thesis, deposited SiNx and SiOxNy films were characterized by various measurement methods such as SE, FTIR, C-V and PCD. FTIR measurements revealed that H content of the films increases for higher refractive indices. While Qf of the SiNx films becomes higher, Dit reduces significantly for lower indices. SiOxNy film with index of 1.73 has the smallest Dit value which is related to higher Si-O density. Fabricated symmetrical samples showed that depositing few nm of SiOxNy layer beneath the SiNx film improves iVoc values of both n and p-type undoped wafers. Qf of Al2O3/SiNx stack with lower index of SiNx film improved with peak firing temperature. iVoc values resisted to higher peaks which is attributed to lower H content in the SiNx film. Optimized ARC layers were simulated with OPAL 2 for comparing absorption/reflection losses [3]. SiNx with lower index at the interface reduced the absorption of light in the thin film. Also, depositing SiOxNy on top of SiNx film resulted in lower reflection in U-V region compared to single layer SiNx film. In the scope of the simulation results, JGen improved with absolute 0.19 mA.cm-2. According to I-V results of the fabricated PERC solar cells, Jsc values were in the same trend as the simulation results, thus resulting in higher photoconversion efficiency.

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Citation Formats
H. H. Canar, “OPTIMIZATION OF SILICON-OXYNITRIDE THIN FILMS FOR CRYSTALLINE SILICON (C-Si) PERC CELL,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.