Immeasurably low surface recombination of crystalline-silicon wafers is demonstrated with an oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) corona charged dielectric stack. We detail experimental variations to each layer of the dielectric stack to establish a procedure which provides outstanding passivation properties on textured and planar silicon wafers. We demonstrate surface recombination velocities of < 1 cm/s and surface recombination prefactors of < 1 fA/cm2, and we show that passivation remains stable over a 2-year period when stored in ambient conditions. The effective carrier lifetimes of n-type silicon are found to exceed the commonly accepted intrinsic lifetime limit, and in one case, a lifetime of 170 ms is attained. These high lifetimes indicate that ONO passivation is amongst the best dielectric passivation, and as such, might find applications in high-efficiency silicon solar cells.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	solar-cells, substrate-temperature, corona discharges, carrier lifetime, charge, efficiency, nitride, density, recombination, hydrogen
Research Division:	Engineering
Research Group:	Environmental engineering
Research Field:	Environmentally sustainable engineering
Objective Division:	Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards
Objective Group:	Environmental policy, legislation and standards
Objective Field:	Environmental protection frameworks (incl. economic incentives)
UTAS Author:	Franklin, E (Associate Professor Evan Franklin)
ID Code:	152567
Year Published:	2019
Web of Science® Times Cited:	8
Deposited By:	Engineering
Deposited On:	2022-08-22
Last Modified:	2022-10-28
Downloads:	0