Surface Passivation of Boron Emitters on n-Type Silicon Solar Cells

Al2O3/SiNx stack passivation layers are among the most popular layers used for commercial silicon solar cells. In particular, aluminum oxide has a high negative charge, while the SiNx film is known to supply hydrogen as well as impart antireflective properties. Although there are many experimental results that show that the passivation characteristics are lowered by using the stack passivation layer, the cause of the passivation is not yet understood. In this study, we investigated the passivation characteristics of Al2O3/SiNx stack layers. To identify the hydrogenation effect, we analyzed the hydrogen migration with atom probe tomography by comparing the pre-annealing and post-annealing treatments. For chemical passivation, capacitance-voltage measurements were used to confirm the negative fixed charge density due to heat treatment. Moreover, the field-effect passivation was understood by confirming changes in the Al2O3 structure using electron energy-loss spectroscopy.