NDLI: Study and manipulation of charges present in silicon nitride films

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Sharma, V. Tracy, C. Schroder, D. Flores, M. Dauksher, B. Bowden, S.
Copyright Year	2013
Description	Author affiliation: Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ, USA (Sharma, V.; Tracy, C.; Schroder, D.; Flores, M.; Dauksher, B.; Bowden, S.)
Abstract	As crystalline silicon solar cells continue to get thinner, the surfaces of the cell play an ever important role in controlling the cell efficiency. One tool to minimize surface recombination is field effect passivation from the charges present in the thin films applied on the cell surfaces. Basic PC 1D simulations were carried to understand the relation between the amount and sign of charge on cell efficiencies with varying emitter-doping levels. Silicon nitride $(SiN_{x})$ thin films are known to carry net positive fixed charges that originate from specific silicon nitrogen dangling bonds $(*SiN_{3})$ known as K centers. The properties of fixed positive charges present in as-deposited $SiN_{x}$ films are studied by capacitance - voltage (CV) and electron spin resonance (ESR) techniques. We report that the as-deposited $SiN_{x}$ films also carry neutral defects $(K^{0}$ centers) that can easily be manipulated to either positive $(K^{+})$ or negative (K) charge states depending on the end application. Corona charging was used to change the net charge in the film to either positive or negative and high energy (sub-300 nm) UV light was used to neutralize or annihilate the charges. ESR measurements showed that the neutral $K^{0}$ defects are distributed throughout the bulk of the nitride film. A high temperature annealing step decreases the amount of neutral defects possibly due to bonding of hydrogen with the K center. First order effects of both positive and negative nitride charges on test structures were studied by photoconductance measurements.
Sponsorship	IEEE Electron Devices Soc.
Starting Page	1288
Ending Page	1293
File Size	3373475
Page Count	6
File Format	PDF
DOI	10.1109/PVSC.2013.6744377
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2013-06-16
Publisher Place	USA
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Films Silicon Computer architecture Surface treatment Microprocessors Surface charging Corona Capacitance-voltage characteristics Photovoltaic cells
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

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