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Content archived on 2022-12-23

A new gas-jet method using electron-beam activation for a high-rate deposition of crystalline silicon films

Objective

The project is aimed to develop a new plasma chemical method for the growth of polycrystalline and monocrystalline layers of silicon for solar cells (SC) on a cheap substrate. The technique provides a very high rate of silicon deposition at low temperature of substrate. Two main ideas are used in the method: activation of initial gas molecules in electron beam plasma and convective transfer of generated radicals from activation zone to substrate by means of the supersonic free jet.

The fulfilment of this project implies the following:
1. Experimental and theoretical investigations of gas-phase processes in free jets of mixture monosilane with gas-carrier (argon, helium and, probably, hydrogen), activated by electron beam plasma, under film deposition conditions will be performed.
Numerical simulation of electron beam interaction with the jets and the processes in activated jet will be carried out. Results of modelling will be compared with experimental data;
2. The study of structural, optical, electrical properties of crystalline silicon films as functions of growth rate, temperature, gas-carrier and energy of ions will be performed with the aims:
- to select the parameters of the process providing a very high deposition rate (about 5-13 nm/s) and a device-level quality;
- to determine the role of hyperthermal ions on an enhanced growth rate and a structural quality of polycrystalline and epitaxial Si films;
- to obtain the important information about effect of grain size on optical characteristics and carrier transport in polycrystalline Si films.

The computational modelling of silicon epitaxy initial stages by Monte Carlo method (as compared with experimental results) will allow to understanding the process of Si epitaxy under high rate.
3. Simulation, design and fabrication of thin film silicon solar cells obtained by the new deposition method will be carried out. Using the optimised conditions for a deposition of the device-level quality films, the pilot solar cells will be produced and their photovoltaic characteristics will be measured. Two kind of solar cells will be realized: epitaxial thin film Si solar cells on Si based substrates with porous Si intermediate layer and polycrystalline Si thin films on foreign substrate.

Call for proposal

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Funding Scheme

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Coordinator

Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC)
EU contribution
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Address
75 Kapeldreef
3001 Leven
Belgium

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Total cost
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Participants (4)