A Novel Method to Investigate Stoichiometry and Performance of Buried Passivated Contacts Utilizing Time-of-Flight SIMS

Steven Harvey; William Nemeth; Craig Perkins; Pauls Stradins

doi:10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366165

A Novel Method to Investigate Stoichiometry and Performance of Buried Passivated Contacts Utilizing Time-of-Flight SIMS

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper

Abstract

We report on methods using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) to elucidate critical information about the buried interfaces in interdigitated back-contact silicon solar cells. We examined the stoichiometry of the tunneling oxide with TOF-SIMS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Interestingly, the data indicates that the stoichiometry of the tunneling oxide moves away from SiO 2 towards lower stoichiometry (SiO x ) upon the crystallization annealing treatment, and towards SiO 2 again upon Al 2 O 3 deposition and a subsequent forming gas anneal. We also report on an important artifact for samples with an Al 2 O 3 passivation layer related to the oxygen content of the matrix.

Original language	American English
Pages	2702-2706
Number of pages	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366165
State	Published - 2018
Event	2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) - Washington, D.C. Duration: 25 Jun 2017 → 30 Jun 2017

Conference

Conference	2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)
City	Washington, D.C.
Period	25/06/17 → 30/06/17

NLR Publication Number

NREL/CP-5K00-67794

Keywords

IBC cell
passivated contact
TOF-SIMS
XPS

Access to Document

10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366165

Cite this

@conference{e77c012f7fc940058d167aae3f9f5ad3,

title = "A Novel Method to Investigate Stoichiometry and Performance of Buried Passivated Contacts Utilizing Time-of-Flight SIMS",

abstract = "We report on methods using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) to elucidate critical information about the buried interfaces in interdigitated back-contact silicon solar cells. We examined the stoichiometry of the tunneling oxide with TOF-SIMS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Interestingly, the data indicates that the stoichiometry of the tunneling oxide moves away from SiO 2 towards lower stoichiometry (SiO x ) upon the crystallization annealing treatment, and towards SiO 2 again upon Al 2 O 3 deposition and a subsequent forming gas anneal. We also report on an important artifact for samples with an Al 2 O 3 passivation layer related to the oxygen content of the matrix.",

keywords = "IBC cell, passivated contact, TOF-SIMS, XPS",

author = "Steven Harvey and William Nemeth and Craig Perkins and Pauls Stradins",

year = "2018",

doi = "10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366165",

language = "American English",

pages = "2702--2706",

note = "2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) ; Conference date: 25-06-2017 Through 30-06-2017",

}

TY - CONF

T1 - A Novel Method to Investigate Stoichiometry and Performance of Buried Passivated Contacts Utilizing Time-of-Flight SIMS

AU - Harvey, Steven

AU - Nemeth, William

AU - Perkins, Craig

AU - Stradins, Pauls

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - We report on methods using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) to elucidate critical information about the buried interfaces in interdigitated back-contact silicon solar cells. We examined the stoichiometry of the tunneling oxide with TOF-SIMS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Interestingly, the data indicates that the stoichiometry of the tunneling oxide moves away from SiO 2 towards lower stoichiometry (SiO x ) upon the crystallization annealing treatment, and towards SiO 2 again upon Al 2 O 3 deposition and a subsequent forming gas anneal. We also report on an important artifact for samples with an Al 2 O 3 passivation layer related to the oxygen content of the matrix.

AB - We report on methods using time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) to elucidate critical information about the buried interfaces in interdigitated back-contact silicon solar cells. We examined the stoichiometry of the tunneling oxide with TOF-SIMS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Interestingly, the data indicates that the stoichiometry of the tunneling oxide moves away from SiO 2 towards lower stoichiometry (SiO x ) upon the crystallization annealing treatment, and towards SiO 2 again upon Al 2 O 3 deposition and a subsequent forming gas anneal. We also report on an important artifact for samples with an Al 2 O 3 passivation layer related to the oxygen content of the matrix.

KW - IBC cell

KW - passivated contact

KW - TOF-SIMS

KW - XPS

U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366165

DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366165

M3 - Paper

SP - 2702

EP - 2706

T2 - 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)

Y2 - 25 June 2017 through 30 June 2017

ER -

A Novel Method to Investigate Stoichiometry and Performance of Buried Passivated Contacts Utilizing Time-of-Flight SIMS

Abstract

Conference

NLR Publication Number

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this