Optimum Hydrogen Injection in Phosphorus-Doped Polysilicon Passivating Contacts

It has previously been shown that ex situ phosphorus-doped polycrystalline silicon on silicon oxide (poly-Si/SiO_x) passivating contacts can suffer a pronounced surface passivation degradation when subjected to a firing treatment at 800 °C or above. The degradation behavior depends strongly on the processing conditions, such as the dielectric coating layers and the firing temperature. The current work further studies the firing stability of poly-Si contacts and proposes a mechanism for the observed behavior based on the role of hydrogen. Secondary ion mass spectrometry is applied to measure the hydrogen concentration in the poly-Si/SiO_x structures after firing at different temperatures and after removing hydrogen by an anneal in nitrogen. While it is known that a certain amount of hydrogen around the interfacial SiO_x can be beneficial for passivation, surprisingly, we found that the excess amount of hydrogen can deteriorate the poly-Si passivation and increase the recombination current density parameter J₀. The presence of excess hydrogen is evident in selected poly-Si samples fired with silicon nitride (SiN_x), where the injection of additional hydrogen to the SiO_x interlayer leads to further degradation in the J₀, while removing hydrogen fully recovers the surface passivation. In addition, the proposed model explains the dependence of firing stability on the crystallite properties and the doping profile, which determine the effective diffusivity of hydrogen upon firing and hence the amount of hydrogen around the interfacial SiO_x after firing.