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@PHDTHESIS{vandenDonker:55221,
author = {van den Donker, Menno N.},
title = {{P}lasma {D}eposition of {M}icrocrystalline {S}ilicon
{S}olar {C}ells: {L}ooking {B}eyond the {G}lass},
volume = {57},
school = {Unversität Eindhoven},
type = {Dr. (Univ.)},
address = {Jülich},
publisher = {Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag},
reportid = {PreJuSER-55221},
isbn = {3-89336-456-0},
series = {Schriften des Forschungszentrums Jülich. Reihe
Energietechnik / Energy Technology},
pages = {VI, 110 S.},
year = {2006},
note = {Record converted from VDB: 12.11.2012; Universität
Eindhoven, Diss., 2006},
abstract = {Microcrystalline silicon emerged in the past decade as
highly interesting material for application in efficient and
stable thin film silicon solar cells. It consists of
nanometer-sized crystallites embedded in a micrometer-sized
columnar structure, which gradually evolves during the SiH4
based deposition process starting from an amorphous
incubation layer. Understanding of and control over this
transient and multi-scale growth process is essential in the
route towards low-cost microcrystalline silicon solar cells.
This thesis presents an experimental study on the
technologically relevant high rate (5-10 $\mathring{A}$
s$^{−1}$) parallel plate plasma deposition process of
state-of-the-art microcrystalline silicon solar cells. The
objective of the work was to explore and understand the
physical limits of the plasma deposition process as well as
to develop diagnostics suitable for process control in
eventual solar cell production. Among the developed
non-invasive process diagnostics were a pyrometer, an
optical spectrometer, a mass spectrometer and a voltage
probe. Complete thin film silicon solar cells and modules
were deposited and characterized. It was established that
under state-of-the-art high rate deposition conditions new
challenges arise regarding temperature control since the
high RF power dissipated in the plasma causes the substrate
to heat up significantly during film growth. On the basis of
experimental results a semi-empirical engineering model was
developed that describes the magnitude of this plasma
induced substrate heating for arbitrary reactor geometry and
process settings. The experimental study revealed that
plasma induced substrate heating leads to sub-optimal
material quality and solar cell performance and it should be
prevented by designing and incorporating a fast active
substrate temperature control in deposition reactors.
Another treated aspect of high rate deposition is the
required high dilution of the SiH$_{4}$ gas in H$_{2}$,
which is of importance to the on-going cost price
reductions. It was established that under conditions of low
H2 dilution transient depletion of the SiH$_{4}$ source gas
evolves through diffusion of SiH4 from the surrounding
reactor volume back into the plasma and prevents successful
nucleation of crystallites. A self-consistent analytical
engineering model was developed for the general description
of this transient depletion of source gases as the [...]},
cin = {IPV},
ddc = {620},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)VDB46},
pnm = {Erneuerbare Energien},
pid = {G:(DE-Juel1)FUEK401},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)11 / PUB:(DE-HGF)3},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/55221},
}