PECVD

PECVD

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Contents

• Solar cell Manufacturing 05

• Introduction 06-09
• Purpose 10-14
• Overview Machine 15-29
Overview- PECVD Loader Unloader
Overview- PECVD Process Furnace
Overview- PECVD Loader Unloader
• Works Flow 30-31
• Work Activity 32-33
• Critical Parameters 34-35
• Defects 36-40
• SPC 41-44

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Solar Cell Line Process Flow

Intex Diffusion PSG PECVD

Printers Fast firing Tester Sorter

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Introduction
PECVD

(Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition)

• To Deposit thin films of different materials over a substrate.
• In Solar cell line, Thin Film of silicon nitride is deposited over Silicon substrate and
Known as ARC Layer.
• Chemical reactions are involved in the process, which occur after creation of a plasma
of the reacting gases used in this PECVD process.

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Basic Principle :

d1=λ0/4η1

d1: Layer thickness

λ0: wavelength of incident light
η1: Refractive index of coated layer
n2: Refractive index of Silicon.
n0: Refractive index of rarer medium.
ARC Purpose???
Purpose

Provide Platform to
H2Bulk Passivation
• During Firing all H2
Front surface Passivation
bond got Passivated
• Defects cause dangling • Results in getting better
bonds, which form trap states efficiency.
• Results in getting higher
Reduce Reflection Losses voltage.
• Reduction in front surface
reflection from 26% to 7% of
silicon material.
• Results Drawing maximum
amount of current
Reflection Losses :

 The most common semiconductor solar cells, the entire visible spectrum (350 - 780 nm)
has enough energy to create electron-hole pairs and therefore all visible light would
ideally be absorbed but in actual most portion light gets reflected back on bare silicon.
 After texturing the reflection of a silicon surface is over 25% due to its high refractive
index.
 After this ARC coating reduces reflection losses to 7%.
Front Side Passivation
• Surface recombination can be major impact both on the short-circuit current and on
the open-circuit voltage. High recombination rates at the top surface have a particularly
detrimental impact on the short-circuit current.
• Lowering the high top surface recombination is typically accomplished by reducing the
number of dangling silicon bonds at the top surface by using “Passivating" layer  on the
top surface.
• For commercial solar cells, dielectric layers such as silicon nitride are commonly used.
Bulk Passivation-H2
• This hydrogenation induces passivation of defects and impurities in the bulk and can
significantly increase the lifetime of minority charge carriers in the bulk of multi-
crystalline wafers.
• The benefits of bulk passivation in Solar Processing done by silicon nitride (SiNx:H).
• The improvement of the surface passivation for layers grown with NH 3/SiH4 with a
refractive index of about ~2.1

• * SiNx:H to improve the effective lifetime of minority charge carriers in the bulk of
mc-Si wafers (bulk passivation) if the layer is annealed as in the firing process.*
Overview!!!!!!
Machine Overview

PECVD

Loading Graphite Boat Process

/Unloading Handler Furnace

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Overview-PECVD-Graphite Boat Loader/Unloader
• Wafer Size –(125x125±1mm, 156x156±1mm)
• Wafer Thickness 150um–250um
• Throughput (gross) 4000Wph

INPUT CARRIER ROBOT HMI

OUTPUT BOAT TRANSPORTATION

CARRIER EMERGENC
Y SECTION
Graphite Boats

•Graphite Boat-308Pcs/Boat
•Plates are electrodes to ignite plasma
•Must be cleaned (etched back) after certain period. It is also required to Pre-coating
of Boat (memory effect).
•No deposition on tube easy maintenance
Overview- Process Furnace

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Loading Station.,

Description Of Items in Fig.;-

1. Laminar Flow Box

2. Loading Box Side Casing
3. Lift
4. Tube closure
5. Loading Box Casing
6. Tube Graphics Adaptor
7. Operating Panel
8. Wafer Detection
9. Slider
10. Loading M/c
11. Paddle.

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Overview- Additional Supplement.,
Abatement System RF Generator

Vacuum Pump

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Process Parameter

ARC Plasma: A plasma is defined as an

ionised gas. It is often described as the
(PECVD) fourth state of matter.

To maintain thickness of Film as per

Film Thickness calculation w.r.t wavelength i.e.
measured in nanometer.

RI
(Refractive index)
Process Sequence

RxN :
• SiH4+ NH3 > Si3Nx+ H2

Media:
• N2, purity 6N
• SiH4 (Silane), purity 5N
• NH3 (Ammonia), purity 5N

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Process Sequence: PECVD Machine

Loading

 Evacuate and stabilize


 Pre-plasma surface treatment


SiNx deposition

Evacuate tube and purge gases

Unloading
General Process Recipe Flow:

Process Recipe Remarks

Power [W]
NH3 Plasma to clean wafer surface, Remove SiO2, Increase
Preclean Max Current [A] Adhesion, Reduce Blistering
Time [s]

Time [sec] Determines Layer thickness

NH3 [slm]

SiH4 [sccm]
Ratio determines Refractive Index, Hydrogen amount
NH3/SiH4 ratio  
Pressure [m Torr]
SiNx Deposition Power [W]

Pulse on [ms]
Plasma On:- Layer is deposited & Process gases are
consumed
Plasma Off:- Process gases have time to distribute uniformly
Pulse off [ms] again

Thickness,d [nm]
Layer Properties Results 
Refractive Index n
Process Optimisation:

Process ARC Results

Process time

Thickness
Process temperature
Control Parameter

Process Gas
RI Flow(SiH4/NH3)
 RI

Silane
Power Pressure
Fraction

Power Pressure Silane Fraction

Effect of Gas Flow on Electrical Parameter:
• Highest Voc is obtained for silicon rich due to optimum surface passivation for Si-
rich layers.
• The Isc, however, depends strongly on the optical properties of the layers.

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Effect of Current (Isc) & Voltage(Voc) over the
Material Thickness

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Work Flow………
Works Flow- PECVD

PSG Tube loading

Load Carrier Verify Boat Boat Unload Output
&EI to Machine Load & Unloading
Unloading carrier sampling
Output

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Work Activities!!!!
Work Activities

•Monitoring Loading/Unloading Carrier eg. Carrier Orientation and breakage.

•Monitoring Boat Loading /Unloading eg. verify Breakage, Wafer tilt, Wafer
breakage at Tube door and inside Tube, Condition of Boat.
•Ensure process run has no issue eg. Vacuum failure, ARC deposition not proper,
Temp. difference, Undesired sound etc.
Critical Parameter…
Critical Parameter..
Note : ARC thickness & RI should be
as per Process Set value
•Verify the product quality by two
parameters
RI (Refractive Index)
Thickness measurement
If any deviation found in measurement
Data and Process control Spec , need to
inform superior…

Quality Tool-Laser Ellipsometer

Defects
Defects Types:

Types

Color Rear Chemical

Dust Particle
Variation Deposition Marks
Defects- Colour variation

Causes:
•Graphite Boat Life
•Improper Boat Cleaning
•Recipe abort
•Pump Failure
•Breakage During Process
•Abatement Down During
Process
•Pressure Varying
Defects- Rear Deposition

Causes:
•Wafer is missing from one slot
during loading.
•Weak wafer breaks and remove
from that slots inside tube.
•Wafers breakages inside tube
•Tilting Wafer from slot
Defects - Dust Particles & Chemical Marks

Causes :
•Dust Particles
•Tube Cleaning
•Breakage
•Vacuum Pump failure

Chemical Mark :
•Can be from Improper Process at
PSG & Texturization
PECVD –SPC!!!
SPC-(Statical Process Control)
PECVD- Thickness and RI Control
Any Question ????..