The effect of hydrogen-radical annealing for SiO/sub 2/ passivation

Abstract

The reduction of recombination velocity is important in obtaining high-efficiency solar cells, and SiO/sub 2/ passivation and hydrogen post-annealing are therefore widely used as surface passivation techniques. This investigation of hydrogen-radical post-annealing using the microwave hydrogen afterglow method shows that this procedure increases the effective lifetime of silicon wafers with SiO/sub 2/ passivation layers with a very short annealing time to a degree greater than does 3% H/sub 2/ forming gas annealing.