Modulating the field-effect passivation at the SiO2/c-Si interface: Analysis and verification of the photoluminescence imaging under applied bias method

In this paper, we study the surface passivation properties of thermally oxidized silicon wafers with controlled surface band bending, using a recently developed characterization technique combining calibrated photoluminescence imaging with the application of an external voltage over the rear side passivation layer. Various aspects of the technique and possible errors in the determination of the effective surface recombination velocity are discussed, including lateral carrier diffusion, leakage currents, and optical effects related to the presence of metal electrodes on the investigated samples. In order to quantitatively describe the recombination activity at the SiO2/c-Si interface and the effect of fixed charges in the oxide layer, the measured effective carrier lifetime vs. voltage curves have been analyzed in the framework of an extended Shockley-Read Hall recombination model. Furthermore, the results have been compared with corresponding results from microwave detected photoconductance decay measurem...

[1]  Eli Yablonovitch,et al.  Electron‐hole recombination at the Si‐SiO2 interface , 1986 .

[2]  Richard Corkish,et al.  Temperature dependence of the radiative recombination coefficient of intrinsic crystalline silicon , 2003 .

[3]  V. Mihailetchi,et al.  Improved QSS-μPCD measurement with quality of decay control: Correlation with steady-state carrier lifetime , 2012 .

[4]  W. Kern.  The Evolution of Silicon Wafer Cleaning Technology , 1990 .

[5]  J. Schmidt.  Measurement of differential and actual recombination parameters on crystalline silicon wafers [solar cells] , 1999 .

[6]  R. Mertens,et al.  Determination of Si-SiO/sub 2/ interface recombination parameters using a gate-controlled point-junction diode under illumination , 1988 .

[7]  W. Warta,et al.  Field-effect passivation of the SiO2Si interface , 1999 .

[8]  A. W. Stephens,et al.  High‐eficiency silicon solar cells: Si/SiO2, interface parameters and their impact on device performance , 1994 .

[9]  Wilhelm Warta,et al.  Impact of illumination level and oxide parameters on Shockley–Read–Hall recombination at the Si‐SiO2 interface , 1992 .

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

[11]  A. Cuevas,et al.  General parameterization of Auger recombination in crystalline silicon , 2002 .

[12]  M. Schubert,et al.  Photoluminescence imaging of silicon wafers , 2006 .

[13]  E. Marstein,et al.  Photoluminescence imaging under applied bias for characterization of Si surface passivation layers , 2012 .

[14]  K. Bothe,et al.  Reverse saturation current density imaging of highly doped regions in silicon: A photoluminescence approach , 2012 .

[15]  Armin G. Aberle,et al.  Crystalline silicon solar cells : advanced surface passivation and analysis , 1999 .

[16]  Alistair B. Sproul,et al.  Dimensionless solution of the equation describing the effect of surface recombination on carrier decay in semiconductors , 1994 .

[17]  P. Würfel,et al.  The chemical potential of radiation , 1982 .