Blistering-free carbon-doped polysilicon (n+) passivating contact with high surface passivation properties prepared by industrial tube PECVD

Tube plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) has garnered attention as a promising large-scale production tool for in-situ doped polysilicon due to its high capacity and low equipment cost. In this work, we explore the use of carbon (C)-doped a-Si:H (n+), deposited by tube PECVD, for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cells. By introducing carbon atoms into polysilicon, blistering-free polysilicon films with excellent passivation properties can be obtained. The optimized sample with C-doped polysilicon (n+) exhibits remarkable surface passivation with a single-sided saturation current density (J0,s) of 1.25 fA/cm2, an implied open-circuit voltage (iVoc) of 751 mV, and a corresponding effective lifetime exceeding 18 ms at a minority carrier concentration of 1 × 1015 cm−3. UV Raman measurements reveal that C doping suppresses the crystallization of polysilicon, leading to a significant stress in the film. Despite excessive C doping, the contact resistivity extracted from the TLM method remains below 13.6 mΩ cm2. As a result, a champion conversion efficiency of 23.64 % was achieved in a small-sized proof-of-concept n-type TOPCon solar cell. This demonstrates the feasibility of fabricating C-doped polysilicon (n+) prepared by tube PECVD for high-efficiency and low-cost TOPCon solar cells.