Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 48 (2009) 066509 (4 pages)  |Previous Article| |Next Article|  |Table of Contents|
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Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Layer Formation by Inductively Coupled Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition and Its Application for Surface Passivation of p-Type Crystalline Silicon

Vinh Ai Dao, Nguyen Van Duy, Jongkyu Heo, Hyungwook Choi, Youngkuk Kim, Lakshminarayan¹, and Junsin Yi

(Received November 13, 2008; accepted March 12, 2009; published online June 22, 2009)

The satisfactory surface passivation properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) prepared by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) at a low temperature (400 °C) on p-type crystalline silicon wafers are reported. Certain parameters, such as SiH₄/H₂ ratio, annealing temperature, film thickness, and substrate temperature, were varied to determine their optimal levels. Completely amorphous layers with a broad transverse optic (TO) mode peak at approximately 480 cm^-1 were identified by Raman spectroscopy, and an optical band gap of approximately 1.6 eV was determined from optical absorption data. A maximum carrier lifetime of 53 µs for an a-Si:H thickness of 15 nm and an annealing temperature of 450 °C was measured for 525-µm-thick p-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrates with a resistivity in the range of 1–20 Ω cm by the quasi-steady-state photoconductance (QSSPC) method. The lowest value of interface trapped charge density (D_it) of approximately 3.34 ×10¹¹ cm^-2 eV^-1 was estimated by capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurement using a metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) structure. Furthermore, simple processing with satisfactory results can be achieved with substrate heating at 400 °C during deposition. The optimal conditions of a SiH₄/H₂ gas ratio of 1/1 and a substrate temperature of 400 °C were implemented for a passivation layer thickness of 5 nm.

URL: http://jjap.ipap.jp/link?JJAP/48/066509/
DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.48.066509

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