Impact of metal silicide precipitate dissolution during rapid thermal processing of multicrystalline silicon solar cells

Synchrotron-based analytical x-ray microprobe techniques were employed to study the dissolution of iron, copper, and nickel silicide precipitates at structural defects in cast multicrystalline silicon in response to rapid thermal processing (RTP). A direct correlation was observed between iron silicide precipitate dissolution, increased minority carrier recombination, and decreased device performance after high-temperature (1000 degrees C) RTP. In contrast, iron precipitates comparable in size to as-grown material remained after lower-temperature RTP (860 degrees C); in this case the material exhibited higher minority carrier diffusion length and better solar cell performance. RTP at both temperatures effectively dissolved nickel and copper silicide precipitates. It is concluded that iron dissolved from structural defect reservoirs detrimentally affects the cell performance, likely by forming distributed point defects and smaller precipitates. For cast multicrystalline silicon, higher performance can be expected by inhibiting the dissolution of these precipitates, i.e., by reducing the time and/or temperature of processing steps. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.