In situ phosphorus-doped polycrystalline silicon films by low pressure chemical vapor deposition for contact passivation of silicon solar cells

In situ phosphorus (P)-doped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) were studied in this work for the fabrication of poly-Si passivating contacts. In situ doping was targeted for enabling the full potential of the high-throughput LPCVD technique, as it could allow leaner fabrication of industrial solar cells featuring poly-Si passivating contacts than the more common ex situ doping routes. By careful optimization of the deposition temperature and the flows of the carrier gas (H2) and the dopant precursor (PH3), high doping in the poly-Si layers was achieved with active P concentrations up to 1.3⋅1020 cm−3. While reduction in the deposition rate (rdep) and thus in the throughput is a known problem when growing in situ P-doped films by LPCVD, this reduction could be limited, and the resulting rdep was equal to 0.078 nm/s. The developed poly-Si films were characterized both structurally and in terms of their passivation potential in poly-Si contacts. The latter yielded recombination current densities down to 1.5 fA/cm2 in passivated (J0,p) and 25.6 fA/cm2 in screen-printing metallized (J0,m) regions on saw-damage removed (SDR) Cz-Si surfaces, accompanied by a contact resistivity (ρc,m) of 4.9 mΩ⋅cm2. On textured Cz-Si surfaces, the corresponding values were J0,p = 3.5 fA/cm2, J0,m = 56.7 fA/cm2, and ρc,m = 1.8 mΩ⋅cm2. Optical impact of the developed poly-Si films was also assessed and a short circuit density loss of 0.41 mA/cm2 is predicted per each 100 nm of poly-Si applied at the rear side of solar cells.