Evidence of an identical firing-activated carrier-induced defect in monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon

Abstract While progress has been made in understanding the behaviour of the recently identified carrier-induced degradation mechanism in p-type multicrystalline silicon solar cells, little is currently known about the root cause of the defect or its possible existence in other materials. In this work, we present evidence suggesting that the defect also exists in Czochralski grown monocrystalline silicon wafers. For both mono- and multicrystalline silicon we demonstrate: 1) the presence of a degradation and recovery of bulk minority carrier lifetime induced by either illuminated or dark annealing; 2) a modulation in the magnitude of degradation by varying the firing conditions; and 3) capture cross-section ratios of 39.4 ± 4.9 and 33.4 ± 1.5 in monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon, respectively. The results indicate that the recently identified degradation mechanism does not only occur in multicrystalline silicon from illuminated annealing at elevated temperatures, but it is also induced by dark annealing at elevated temperatures, and that the degradation can occur in Czochralski grown silicon.

[1]  S. Wenham,et al.  Fast and slow lifetime degradation in boron‐doped Czochralski silicon described by a single defect , 2016 .

[2]  W. Kwapil,et al.  Light-induced activation and deactivation of bulk defects in boron-doped float-zone silicon , 2017 .

[3]  K. Bothe,et al.  Generation and annihilation of boron–oxygen-related recombination centers in compensated p- and n-type silicon , 2010 .

[4]  K. Krauss,et al.  Light-induced Degradation of Silicon Solar Cells with Aluminiumoxide Passivated Rear Side , 2015 .

[5]  S. Wenham,et al.  Impact of thermal processes on multi-crystalline silicon , 2017 .

[6]  Statistical analysis of recombination properties of the boron-oxygen defect in p-type Czochralski silicon , 2017 .

[7]  Peter Engelhart,et al.  A new mc-Si degradation effect called LeTID , 2015, 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC).

[8]  Dong Seop Kim,et al.  Hydrogen diffusion in silicon from PECVD silicon nitride , 2008, 2008 33rd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference.

[9]  S. Glunz,et al.  Improved parameterization of Auger recombination in silicon , 2012 .

[10]  G. Hahn,et al.  Degradation and regeneration analysis in mc-Si , 2016, 2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC).

[11]  D. Macdonald,et al.  Dynamics of light-induced FeB pair dissociation in crystalline silicon , 2004 .

[12]  Z. Hameiri,et al.  Low-Absorbing and Thermally Stable Industrial Silicon Nitride Films With Very Low Surface Recombination , 2017, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[13]  G. Hahn,et al.  Temperature and Light-Induced Changes in Bulk and Passivation Quality of Boron-Doped Float-Zone Silicon Coated With SiNx:H , 2017, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[14]  I. Périchaud,et al.  Hydrogen passivation of defects in multicrystalline silicon solar cells , 2003 .

[15]  David Berney Needleman,et al.  Lifetime Spectroscopy Investigation of Light-Induced Degradation in p-type Multicrystalline Silicon PERC , 2016, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[16]  Peter Engelhart,et al.  Degradation of multicrystalline silicon solar cells and modules after illumination at elevated temperature , 2015 .

[17]  W. Warta,et al.  Degradation of carrier lifetime in Cz silicon solar cells , 2001 .

[18]  David Berney Needleman,et al.  Evolution of LeTID Defects in p-Type Multicrystalline Silicon During Degradation and Regeneration , 2017, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[19]  W. Kwapil,et al.  Impact of the firing temperature profile on light induced degradation of multicrystalline silicon , 2016 .

[20]  Ziv Hameiri,et al.  Recombination parameters of lifetime-limiting carrier-induced defects in multicrystalline silicon for solar cells , 2017 .

[21]  Dominic Walter,et al.  Understanding the Light-induced Lifetime Degradation and Regeneration in Multicrystalline Silicon , 2016 .

[22]  Stephan Großer,et al.  Intra-grain versus grain boundary degradation due to illumination and annealing behavior of multi-crystalline solar cells , 2016 .

[23]  J. Heitmann,et al.  Influence of Al2O3 and SiNx passivation layers on LeTID , 2016 .

[24]  D. Macdonald,et al.  Grown-in defects limiting the bulk lifetime of p-type float-zone silicon wafers , 2015 .

[25]  G. Hahn,et al.  Investigations on the long time behavior of the metastable boron–oxygen complex in crystalline silicon , 2008 .

[26]  S. Wenham,et al.  Modulating the extent of fast and slow boron-oxygen related degradation in Czochralski silicon by thermal annealing: Evidence of a single defect , 2017 .

[27]  Hele Savin,et al.  Light-induced degradation in multicrystalline silicon: the role of copper , 2016 .

[28]  C. Cañizo,et al.  Dissolution and gettering of iron during contact co-firing , 2011 .

[29]  Jan Schmidt,et al.  Lifetime degradation and regeneration in multicrystalline silicon under illumination at elevated temperature , 2016 .

[30]  David N. R. Payne,et al.  Rapid Stabilization of High-Performance Multicrystalline P-type Silicon PERC Cells , 2016, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[31]  K. Bothe,et al.  Electronically activated boron-oxygen-related recombination centers in crystalline silicon , 2006 .

[32]  S. Wenham,et al.  The role of hydrogenation and gettering in enhancing the efficiency of next‐generation Si solar cells: An industrial perspective , 2017 .

[33]  Karsten Bothe,et al.  Electronic properties of iron-boron pairs in crystalline silicon by temperature- and injection-level-dependent lifetime measurements , 2005 .

[34]  M. Schubert,et al.  Building intuition of iron evolution during solar cell processing through analysis of different process models , 2015 .

[35]  A. Weeber,et al.  Influence of the high-temperature “firing” step on high-rate plasma deposited silicon nitride films used as bulk passivating antireflection coatings on silicon solar cells , 2003 .

[36]  H. Savin,et al.  Recombination activity of light-activated copper defects in p-type silicon studied by injection- and temperature-dependent lifetime spectroscopy , 2016 .

[37]  Ville Vähänissi,et al.  Impact of phosphorus gettering parameters and initial iron level on silicon solar cell properties , 2013 .

[38]  D. Macdonald,et al.  Gettering and poisoning of silicon wafers by phosphorus diffused layers , 2003, 3rd World Conference onPhotovoltaic Energy Conversion, 2003. Proceedings of.

[39]  S. Wenham,et al.  Modulation of Carrier-Induced Defect Kinetics in Multi-Crystalline Silicon PERC Cells Through Dark Annealing , 2017 .

[40]  G. Hahn,et al.  Boron-oxygen related defects in Cz-silicon solar cells degradation, regeneration and beyond , 2009 .

[41]  Deren Yang,et al.  Quantification of characteristic parameters for the dissociation kinetics of iron–boron pairs in Czochralski silicon , 2011 .

[42]  M. Schubert,et al.  The Impact of Different Diffusion Temperature Profiles on Iron Concentrations and Carrier Lifetimes in Multicrystalline Silicon Wafers , 2013, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[43]  David Berney Needleman,et al.  Engineering Solutions and Root-Cause Analysis for Light-Induced Degradation in p-Type Multicrystalline Silicon PERC Modules , 2016, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[44]  Armin G. Aberle,et al.  Generalized analysis of quasi-steady-state and quasi-transient measurements of carrier lifetimes in semiconductors , 1999 .

[45]  Giso Hahn,et al.  Influence of hydrogen effusion from hydrogenated silicon nitride layers on the regeneration of boron-oxygen related defects in crystalline silicon , 2013 .

[46]  W. Read,et al.  Statistics of the Recombinations of Holes and Electrons , 1952 .

[47]  D. Bagnall,et al.  Acceleration and mitigation of carrier‐induced degradation in p‐type multi‐crystalline silicon , 2016 .

[48]  Stuart Wenham,et al.  Rapid passivation of carrier-induced defects in p-type multi-crystalline silicon , 2016 .

[49]  K. Ramspeck,et al.  Light Induced Degradation of Rear Passivated mc-Si Solar Cells , 2012 .

[50]  Fabian Fertig,et al.  Light‐induced degradation of PECVD aluminium oxide passivated silicon solar cells , 2015 .

[51]  Stuart Wenham,et al.  Accelerated formation of the boron–oxygen complex in p‐type Czochralski silicon , 2015 .

[52]  A. Cuevas,et al.  The trade-off between phosphorus gettering and thermal degradation in multicrystalline silicon , 2000 .

[53]  S. Wenham,et al.  Manipulation of Hydrogen Charge States for Passivation of P-Type Wafers in Photovoltaics , 2014, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[54]  S. Wenham,et al.  Impact of annealing on the formation and mitigation of carrier-induced defects in multi-crystalline silicon , 2017 .

[55]  A. Kaminski,et al.  Study of the composition of hydrogenated silicon nitride SiNx:H for efficient surface and bulk passivation of silicon , 2009 .

[56]  W. Wettling,et al.  Solar cells with efficiencies above 21% processed from Czochralski grown silicon , 1996, Conference Record of the Twenty Fifth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1996.

[57]  S. Peters,et al.  Mass production of p-type Cz silicon solar cells approaching average stable conversion efficiencies of 22 % , 2017 .

[58]  G. Dingemans,et al.  Hydrogen induced passivation of Si interfaces by Al2O3 films and SiO2/Al2O3 stacks , 2010 .

[59]  Evidence of impurity gettering by industrial phosphorus diffusion , 2000, Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 2000 (Cat. No.00CH37036).