High-rate deposition of silicon nitride and silicon oxide films for surface passivation and (anti)reflection coating applications

In order to increase the cost-effectiveness of crystalline silicon solar cells, surface passivation and internal reflection at the back surface will become increasingly important. To keep processing times sufficiently short, it would be favorable if high-rate PECVD layers could satisfy both means. In this paper we will present that both high quality silicon nitride films and silicon oxide films can be deposited by means of the expanding thermal plasma technique which is employed in the commercially available DEPx system of OTB Solar. Consequently, both the front and back surface of a high-efficiency solar cell can be optimized while keeping processing times sufficiently low.