Study of the microstructure transition width from amorphous to microcrystalline silicon as a function of the input silane concentration

B. Strahm; A. Feltrin; G. Bugnon; F. Meillaud-Sculati; C. Ballif; A. A. Howling; Ch. Hollenstein

doi:10.1117/12.825799

20 August 2009 Study of the microstructure transition width from amorphous to microcrystalline silicon as a function of the input silane concentration

B. Strahm, A. Feltrin, G. Bugnon, F. Meillaud-Sculati, C. Ballif, A. A. Howling, Ch. Hollenstein

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7409, Thin Film Solar Technology; 74090I (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.825799
Event: SPIE Solar Energy + Technology, 2009, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Amorphous and microcrystalline silicon have been proven to be very interesting for low cost thin film photovoltaic devices. Usually these two materials are deposited using the same large area plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition reactors from silane and hydrogen gases. The transition from amorphous deposition regime to microcrystalline deposition regime is generally done by reducing the silane concentration in the input gas flow and the optimum deposition parameters to achieve high performance device stands just at the transition between the two microstructures. In the present work, a study of the transition width from amorphous to microcrystalline silicon is presented as a function of the input silane concentration. It is shown that the higher the input silane concentration, the wider is the microstructure transition. As a consequence, the process is less sensitive to fluctuations of the silane concentration when silane concentrations higher than 10 % are used and better uniformity and reproducibility can be then achieved.

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B. Strahm, A. Feltrin, G. Bugnon, F. Meillaud-Sculati, C. Ballif, A. A. Howling, and Ch. Hollenstein "Study of the microstructure transition width from amorphous to microcrystalline silicon as a function of the input silane concentration", Proc. SPIE 7409, Thin Film Solar Technology, 74090I (20 August 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.825799

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