Deposition Contribution Rates and Simulation Model Refinement for Polysilicon Films Deposited by Large-Sized Tubular Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition Reactors.

Abstract

Tunnel oxide passivating contact cells have become the mainstream form of high-performance photovoltaic cells; however, the key factor restricting the further improvement of tunnel oxide passivating contact cell performance lies in the deposition process technology of high-quality polysilicon films. The experimental optimization cost for the deposition of large-sized polysilicon films in low-pressure chemical vapor deposition reactors is enormous when conducted in the temperature range of 800-950 K; hence, the necessity to develop effective computer simulation models becomes urgent. In recent years, our research group has conducted two-dimensional simulation research on large-sized, low-pressure chemical vapor deposition. This article focuses on analyzing the influence of gas-phase chemical reactions on the contribution rate of polysilicon film deposition under a mixed atmosphere of H₂ and SiH₄. The findings indicate that when using SiH₄ as the precursor reactants with a gas pressure not exceeding 100 Pa, SiH₄ contributes more than 99.6% to the deposition of polysilicon films, while the contribution rate of intermediates from chemical reactions to film deposition is less than 0.5% with 860-900 K. The influence of temperature on the contribution rate of gas-phase intermediates is negligible. It is found that simulating complex multi-step chemical reactions is highly resource-intensive, making it difficult to achieve the three-dimensional simulations of large-sized tubular LPCVD reactors. Based on the in-depth analysis of the mechanism and simulation results, a simplified model neglecting the complex multi-step chemical reaction process has been proposed. Through employing this refined and simplified model, the two-dimensional simulation of the polysilicon thin films deposition process in the large-sized tubular low pressure chemical vapor deposition reactor will become more effective and resource efficient.