Study of radio-frequency plasma deposition of amorphous silicon for the improvement of solar cell production

Plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) of thin films such as amorphous silicon has widespread applications especially in the field of photovoltaic solar cells and thin-film transistors for flat screen production. Industrial applications require high depositions rates over large areas with a good uniformity in layer thickness. In this thesis, some aspects of PECVD in large surface, industrial type, capacitive radio frequency reactor are investigated. The aim of this work is to study the plasma process conditions to increase the deposition rate of uniform, good quality, a-Si:H layer for solar cell application in a single chamber reactor. The studies realized during this thesis have necessitated the development and the comprehension of diagnostics such as deposition rate measurement by in-situ interferometry, plasma power measurement and layer density measurement by ellipsometry. During the thesis, we have also elaborated a matching-box circuit for using process frequencies of 27.12 MHz and 40.68 MHz. Deposition of a-Si:H in small electrode gap reactor has been studied. At present industrial reactors have a standard electrode gap of 2.4 cm. We modified a reactor to reach a small gap of 1.7 cm. It appears that we have obtained faster deposition rate in the small gap reactor but non-uniformity problems increase due to edge focusing and powder effects. One solution, based on a teflon jigsaw to keep the plasma away from the edge confined spaces, is proposed to suppress focusing effect but the operation parameter space is still reduced by the powder effect. Systematic measurements of a-Si:H layer density was also done by ellipsometry. It is shown that the layer density decreases when the deposition rate increases, independently of pressure, gas flow and frequency (27.12 MHz/40.68 MHz) of the plasma. At high deposition rate, 6 Å/s, only an increase of the process temperature from 200°C to 230°C can significantly improve the layer density. We have noted also a slight improvement of layer density for layers deposited in the small gap reactor. Nevertheless industrial constraints impose a process temperature of 200°C and a standard gap reactor. By optimising the process parameters, keeping the temperature process at 200°C, good quality, uniform, a-Si:H layer were deposited at 3 Å/s on 37 cm × 47 cm glass substrates at 40.68 MHz. A particular source of non-uniformity in large area reactor has been examined. In large area reactors, a perturbation in RF plasma potential, due to the electrode edge asymmetry, propagates towards the plasma center with a characteristic damping length λ. The variation of RF plasma potential at the edge implies a variation of the deposition rate across the reactor area and then a non-uniformity of the deposited layer. A theoretical study was done to understand of this phenomenon and experimental results confirmed the model. Finally, for solar cell applications, a study of the boron cross-contamination during solar cell deposition in a single chamber process has been done. During the deposition of the intrinsic layer, for a p-i-n cell, i-layer is contaminated by the residual boron radicals present in the reactor after the deposition of the boron-doped layer. This contamination decreases cell performance. Several reactor treatments have been tested to solve this contamination problem. The effectiveness of these treatments was evaluated by secondary ion mass microscopy (SIMS) measurements. It appears that an ammonia flush or a water vapour flush of a few minutes, between the deposition of the p-layer and i-layer, reduces the boron contamination at the p-i interface. The performance of cells made with these treatments, in a single chamber process, are comparable to performance of cells done in a multi-chamber process.

Design, characterisation and modelling of a high current DC arc plasma source for silicon and silicon carbide processing at low pressure

Lukas Derendinger

In the frame of this thesis, two similar high current DC arc (HCDCA) plasma sources were investigated in a low gas pressure regime (10-3-10-2 mbar). One of them was initially designed for the epitaxial growth of silicon and silicon germanium (LEP), the other for the industrial deposition of diamond (BAI). The LEP source was analysed using pure argon plasmas. Measurements of the ion saturation current were performed with a custom-built multi-Langmuir probe to analyse plasma density homogeneity. Plasma instabilities at 50 Hz were observed and studied by different means. One source of the instability is the AC current used for the filament heating, whereas lower frequency instabilities are due to the use of a ring shaped anode. A sensitive Hall sensor was used to measure the magnetic field induced by the discharge current. It was found that depending on the plasma parameters gas pressure and external magnetic field the current tends to attach at different points on the anode, leading to a complete loss of reactor symmetry. The installation of an additional cusp field around the reactor chamber lead to an increase of the overall homogeneity of the plasma density, but it could not resolve the problems of current attachment. In the following the ring anode was replaced by a point anode and the maximum external magnetic field strength was increased by a factor of ten. With a novel multi-Hall probe the current density of the now columnar shaped plasma was measured, showing a strongly peaked current density profile, when an external magnetic field is applied. Together with ion saturation current measurements made with a Langmuir probe, the electron temperature inside the plasma column was estimated to be about 4 eV. In earlier works made on the BAI reactor the high dissociation efficiency of the HCDCA plasma source has already been shown. Optical emission spectra were compared between RF plasmas, low pressure (1.5mbar) HCDCA plasmas and our very low pressure (10-3-10-2 mbar) HCDCA plasmas. The dominating species found in RF plasma spectra are molecular, the spectra of low pressure HCDCA plasmas are dominated by atomic species and the spectra of very low pressure HCDCA plasmas are dominated by ions, emphasising the high dissociation efficiency of this system. Silane and Methane was used as precursor gases in the BAI reactor for the deposition of silicon carbide films. Promising high deposition rates up to 9 nm/s were found, but FTIR spectroscopy showed high hydrogen and oxygen concentrations in the porous films, making the not optimised deposited material useless for the application of wear-resistant coatings. Microcrystalline hydrogenated silicon (µc-Si:H) is viewed as a cost- and energy-effective alternative to crystalline silicon for the production of solar cells. A detailed analysis of the deposition rate and the Raman crystallinity of µc-Si:H films deposited in the BAI reactor showed deposition rates up to 6.5 nm/s and a wide range of crystallinity from 0-80%. Film thickness inhomogeneity in silicon solar cells has to be less than 5%. To meet this standard a first substantial improvement was achieved with the installation of a linear gas injection along the plasma column. Tests on large surface glasses (47 × 37 cm2) revealed strong diffusive effects, which could be reproduced with a simple gas diffusion model. The model showed the necessity to reduce the dead volume around the plasma and to set the substrates as close as possible to the plasma column in order to minimise film thickness inhomogeneity due to diffusion. Deposition rate measurements made in these conditions assured the results of the model. The development of a method to estimate the dissociation efficiency of the plasma by simple pressure measurements showed also an important increase of the silane dissociation from 75-92% when the plasma is confined in a smaller volume. Therefore, compared to the reactor with a large dead volume, only a third of the initial silane is lost to the pumps.

EPFL2008

Explaining Morphological and Electrical Features of Boron-doped Zinc Oxide to Tailor New Electrodes for Photovoltaics

Lorenzo Fanni

TCOs are a class of metal oxides that combine transparency to visible light with electrical conductivity. Each TCO is characterized by the trade-off of these two properties which can be tuned for a particular application. This thesis is dedicated to the investigation of one TCO material: boron doped zinc oxide (ZnO:B) deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD). Its main distinction is low absorptance which makes ZnO films deposited by LP-MOCVD ideal as transparent electrodes in thin-film solar cells. Although ZnO:B properties have previously been optimized for this application, the exact processes behind the film formation have not been fully described. This thesis substantially clarifies the processes of the film nucleation and growth evolution, and the mechanisms of incorporation of the B atoms into the ZnO. First, for non-intentionally doped ZnO we establish that the main deposition parameters influencing the film properties are the deposition temperature, the gas precursor ratio and the total gas flow. We experimented with these three parameters across a wide range of parameter values. The films deposited were characterized at different stages of their growth using atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction and automated crystallographic orientation mapping. These data reveal the dependence of the film preferential orientation on the deposition conditions. We propose a model based on the adsorbed atom mean free path to explain this dependence. Using deposition parameters learnt from this model, we control the preferential orientation during film growth to increase the grain sizes. Second, we analyze the conductivity to B-doped ZnO films. Boron atoms act as electron donors in ZnO, increasing the electrical conductivity and decreasing the transparency. This work quantifies how the B concentration and spatial distribution affect the film conductivity. Quantification of the B atoms incorporated in the film was performed using nuclear reaction analysis. We found that a high level of O precursor gas favors B incorporation in the film. Combining nano secondary ion mass spectroscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy we demonstrate that the dopant atoms incorporate in only one of the two sides of each grain. This is a new observation because dopant atoms are commonly assumed to be uniformly distributed in the film. The transparency and electrical conductivity of ZnO depend also on the carrier mobility. The sources of carrier scattering are investigated for intrinsic (i.e. O vacancies and Zn interstitials) and extrinsic (B atoms) impurity concentrations. We observed that for the same B concentration the source of electron scattering depends on the concentration of intrinsic defects: for films with a lower concentration of intrinsic defects, the main source of scattering is the grain boundaries; for films with a higher concentration of intrinsic defects, the main sources are the mechanisms happening in the crystalline region. Finally, LP-MOCVD ZnO:B films were optimized using the previous results and successfully applied in four different types of solar cells: amorphous/microcrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, copper indium gallium selenide and silicon heterojunction. The advantages of the developed films to these four cells include the simplification of the fabrication process, the reduction of reflectance and parasitic absorption, and a better understanding of carrier transport mechanisms through the device.

EPFL2016

On the Powder Formation in the Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Process for the Deposition of SiOx Barrier Coatings

Marina Ricci

Nowadays thin films play an important role in everyday life and in industries. Thin film technology has been developed primarily for the growing demand for development of smaller and smaller devices that require advanced materials and new processing techniques suitable for micro and nano technology. One of the methods of producing thin films is by means of plasma technology. This is a technique by which plasma, also known as 'the fourth state of matter', is used to generate ions, electrons and radicals which deposit at a surface where they will form a thin film. The source of these depositing species could be either gaseous, liquid or solid in origin. Most of the time a plasma is generated by means of an electrical discharge. Plasma technologies are used for various applications. One of these is Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD). PECVD systems have widespread applications in the electronic sector, because of their exibility in depositing different films such as silicon oxide thin films (SiOx). These films, currently deposited by organosilicon compounds, such as hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO), have dielectric and good barrier properties. The aim of the work at CRPP consists in optimizing PECVD processes for the deposition of these films on polymers. In this study, the species in gaseous phase and the powder produced in oxygen-diluted HMDSO plasmas were experimentally characterized in a radiofrequency (RF) capacitively-coupled reactor at 13.56 MHz. The gaseous phase of these plasmas and the particle formation were studied by in-situ infrared absorption spectroscopy and optical emission spectroscopy. The study of the powder formation is important because the particle deposition imposes an upper limit on the deposition rate. Particle formation was firstly studied as a function of HMDSO/O2 ratio. Analysis of the time evolution of the infrared absorption spectra gives the development of the size, the number density, the structure and the particle composition. At high oxygen dilution the formation of large particles is observed. The analysis of HMDSO/O2 plasma at low O2 content suggests that at the beginning of the process very small particles are formed by polymerization; the same particles do not grow much and keep sizes around 50 nm. The admixture of inert or non-reactant gases, such as Ar or N2, into the plasma promotes polymerization of the monomer; a high value of one of these inert or non-reactant gases leads to small powder particle size, since only polymerization takes place in this case. Particle size around 50 nm is also found in this case. At the same time we see a decrease of the carbon content and a weak reduction of the stoichiometry in SiOx indicated by the shift of the SiOSi asymmetric stretching vibration. This reduction also influences the deposited layers, less oxidized and, thus, quite far from a stoichiometric character. Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDSN) and tetramethylsilane (TMS) are other reagents that have been identified as alternatives to HMDSO. The in-situ infrared absorption spectra show that HMDSO/O2 and HMDSN/O2 plasmas are quite similar, but in the second case a lower SiOSi stretching peak intensity, due to NH and SiN peaks, is seen. TMS/O2 and HMDSN/O2 plasma spectra show a low SiOSi bending and stretching peak intensity, due also to the oxygen atom absence in their chemical structure. Two separate chapters are respectively devoted to the silicon nitride thin films (SiNx) and plasma crystal formation. SiNx layers are deposited by three different organosilicon compounds, such as HMDSN, TMS and bis(dimethylamino)dimethylsilane (BDMADMS). No powder formation is visualized in this contest. The ex-situ infrared absorption spectra show the difficulty to produce stable SiNx films; they present a low SiN peak intensity and are quite hygroscopic. Furthermore, in HMDSO/O2 plasmas at high oxygen dilution and high pressure, later in time into the discharge, accretion leads to larger and larger particles which can finish up in particles forming a plasma crystal. The study of RF harmonics shows the presence of instabilities, clear indications of the passage from small particulate to plasma crystal structure.

EPFL2011