Thin-film Photodiode with an a-Si:H/nc-Si:H Absorption Bilayer

2011 ◽  
Vol 1321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Vygranenko ◽  
M. Vieira ◽  
A. Sazonov
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Leakage Current ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Spectral Response ◽  
Nanocrystalline Silicon ◽  
Depletion Region ◽  
Long Wavelength ◽  
Near Ultraviolet ◽  
High Bias ◽  
Bias Range

ABSTRACTWe report on the fabrication and characterization of n+-n-i-δi-p thin-film photodiodes with an active region comprising a hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) n-layer and a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) i-layer. The combination of wide- and narrow-gap absorption layers enables the spectral response extending from the near-ultraviolet (NUV) to the near-infrared (NIR) region. Moreover, in the low-bias range, when only the i-layer is depleted, the leakage current is significantly lower than that in the conventional nc-Si:H n+-n-p+ photodiode deposited under the same deposition conditions. Device with the 900nm/400nm thick n-i-layers exhibits a reverse dark current density of 3 nA/cm2 at −1V. In the high-bias range, when the depletion region expands within the n-layer, the magnitude of the leakage current depends on electronic properties of nc-Si:H. The density of shallow and deep states, and diffusion length of holes in the n-layer have been estimated from the capacitance-voltage characteristics and from the bias dependence of the long-wavelength response, respectively. To improve the quantum efficiency in the NIR-region, we have also implemented a Cr / ZnO:Al back reflector. The observed long-wavelength spectral response is about twice as high as that for a reference photodiode without ZnO:Al layer. Results demonstrate the feasibility of the photodiode for low-level light detection in the NUV-to-NIR spectral range.

Evaluation of Ar-Diluted Silane PECVD for Thin Film Si:H Based Solar Cells

2004 ◽  
Vol 808 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Anna Selvan ◽  
Yuan-Min Li ◽  
Liwei Li ◽  
Alan E. Delahoy
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Spectral Response ◽  
Nanocrystalline Silicon ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
Dilution Method ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Long Wavelength ◽  
Hydrogen Dilution ◽  
Porous Microstructure ◽  
The Stability

ABSTRACTDilution by Ar of silane plasma has been reported to increase the stability of a-Si:H films. A critical question is whether Ar diluted i-layers offer higher stabilized solar cell efficiencies than the conventional hydrogen dilution method. We have fabricated a-Si:H p-i-n solar cells with RF-PECVD i-layers by Ar dilution of silane. Ar dilution ratio (ADR, Ar/SiH4), RF power,pressure, and i-layer thickness were varied. At low ADR < 20, such solar cells show comparable initial efficiencies and stability as those devices having H2-diluted i-layers of similar thickness. For cells made with ADR > 20, the initial efficiency decreases dramatically with further increase in Ar dilution, and light soaking causes only mild changes in efficiencies. The stabilized efficiencies of cells made with high ADR are inferior to the cells produced with low ADR or cells prepared by H2 dilution. Further, Voc of solar cells made with high ADR (> 50) decreases substantially in ambient, indicating a porous microstructure susceptible to oxidation. While thermal annealing improves the Voc, a full recovery of Voc is made by accelerated light soaking.The combination of high power and high ADR can lead to nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) growth, although nucleation is much more difficult to attain by the Ar dilution method compared to hydrogen dilution. We have succeeded in fabricating p-i-n solar cells with nc-Si:H i-layers prepared by the Ar dilution approach. The double dilution by Ar and hydrogen of silane (Ar+H2+SiH4) can result in nc-Si:H i-layers with enhanced long wavelength spectral response compared to devices incorporating nc-Si:H i-layers grown by H2 dilution only. The nc-Si:H solar cells with Ar+H2 diluted i-layers exhibit no light-induced degradation.Using energetic Ar-rich plasma, in a process much simpler than the traditional nc-Si:H technique, doped a-Si:H thin layers can be prepared to form excellent tunnel junctions for multi-junction solar cells. We demonstrate such a novel, non-contaminating tunnel junction in tandem a-Si/a-Si and a-Si/nc-Si solar cells entirely fabricated in a single-chamber RF-PECVD system.

Hydrogen in Ultralow Temperature SiO2for Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin Film Transistors

2004 ◽  
Vol 814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Kattamis ◽  
I-Chun Cheng ◽  
Steve Allen ◽  
Sigurd Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Leakage Current ◽  
Current Density ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Crystalline Silicon ◽  
Chemical Vapor ◽  
Nanocrystalline Silicon ◽  
Film Deposition ◽  
Silicon Thin Film

AbstractNanocrystalline silicon is a candidate material for fabricating thin film transistors with high carrier mobilities on plastic substrates. A major issue in the processing of nanocrystalline silicon thin film transistors (nc-Si:H TFTs) at ultralow temperatures is the quality of the SiO2gate dielectric. SiO2deposited at less than 250°C by radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (rf-PECVD), and not annealed at high temperature after deposition, exhibits high leakage current and voltage shifts when incorporated into TFT's. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements show that the hydrogen concentration (NH) in PECVD oxide deposited at 150°C on crystalline silicon (x-Si) is ∼ 0.8 at. %. This is much higher than in thermal oxides on x-Si, which display concentrations of less than 0.003 at. %. The leakage current density for thermal oxides on x-Si at a bias of 10 V is ∼9×10−6A/cm2whereas for 200°C PECVD oxides on nc-Si:H the current is ∼1×10−4A/cm2. As the temperature of the SiO2deposition is reduced to 150°C the current density rises by up to two orders of magnitude more. The H which is suspected to cause the leakage current across the PECVD oxide originates from the nc-Si:H substrate and the SiH4source gas. We analyzed the 300-nm gate oxide in capacitor structures of Al / SiO2/n+nc-Si:H / Cr / glass, Al / SiO2/ n+nc-Si:H / x-Si, and Al / SiO2/ x-Si. Vacuum annealing the nc-Si:H prior to PECVD of the oxide drives H out of the nc-Si:H film and reduces the amount of H incorporated into the oxide that is deposited on top. SiO2film deposition from SiH4and N2O at high He dilution has a still greater effect on lowering NH. The leakage current at a 10 V bias dropped from ∼1×10−4A/cm2to about ∼2×10−6A/cm2using He dilution at 250°C, and the vacuum anneal of the nc-Si:H lowered it by an additional factor of two. Thus we observe that both the nc-Si:H anneal and the SiO2deposition at high He dilution lessen the gate leakage current.

Study of the Drain Leakage Current in Bottom-Gated Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors by Conduction and Low-Frequency Noise Measurements

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1076-1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Argyrios T. Hatzopoulos ◽  
Nikolaos Arpatzanis ◽  
Dimitrios H. Tassis ◽  
Charalabos A. Dimitriadis ◽  
Maher Oudwan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Leakage Current ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Nanocrystalline Silicon ◽  
Frequency Noise ◽  
Low Frequency Noise ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Noise Measurements

Thin-Film Phototransistor with nc-Si:H/a-Si:H Bilayer Channel

2012 ◽  
Vol 1426 ◽  
pp. 205-210
Author(s):  
Y. Vygranenko ◽  
A. Sazonov ◽  
M. Fernandes ◽  
M. Vieira ◽  
A. Nathan
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Optical Sensors ◽  
Spectral Response ◽  
Chemical Vapor ◽  
Nanocrystalline Silicon ◽  
Light Level ◽  
Transport Layer ◽  
Photon Flux ◽  
Flat Panel Display ◽  
Threshold Voltage Shift

ABSTRACTThere is significant interest in optical sensors whose fabrication process is fully compatible with existing flat panel display thin film transistor (TFT) technology. Here, we report a field-effect phototransistor with a channel comprising a thin nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) transport layer and a thicker hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) absorption layer. The implementation of nc-Si:H layer improves device stability in comparison with a-Si:H phototransistors, resulting in reduced threshold voltage shift. Semiconductor and dielectric layers were deposited by radio-frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at 280°C. The device characterization included the dark and light transfer characteristics, spectral-response and dynamic measurements. The external quantum efficiency was measured as a function of incident photon flux at different biasing conditions. The phototransistor with channel length of 24 microns and photosensitive area of 1.4 mm2shows an off-current of about 1 pA, and photo-conductive gain up to 200 at low incident intensities. Thus, the results demonstrate the feasibility of the phototransistor for low light level detection.

Investigation of Textured Back Reflectors for Microcrystalline Silicon Based Solar Cells

1999 ◽  
Vol 557 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Kluth ◽  
O. Vetterl ◽  
R. Carius ◽  
F. Finger ◽  
S. Wieder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Spectral Response ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Chemical Vapour ◽  
Root Mean Square Roughness ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Feature Size ◽  
Long Wavelength ◽  
Back Reflectors

AbstractMicrocrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cells require an effective light trapping in the near infrared (NIR) to enhance the long wavelength spectral response. For this purpose we investigated back reflectors based on texture-etched ZnO/Ag stacks prepared on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering. With decreasing sputter pressure the resulting surface texture of the glass/Ag/ZnO substrates after etching exhibits a larger feature size and root mean square roughness. The increase in feature size corresponds to an increase of diffuse reflectivity. Applied in microcrystalline solar cells prepared by VHF plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD), the reflectors showing the largest feature size (prepared at the lowest possible sputter pressure) yielded the highest long wavelength spectral response. The μc-Si n-i-p cells prepared on the latter back reflector exhibited efficiencies of 6.9 % (short circuit current density jsc= 18.8 mA/cm2) and 7.5 % (jsc=25 mA/cm2) for an i-layer thickness of 1 μm and 3.5 μm, respectively.

Leakage current mechanisms in top-gate nanocrystalline silicon thin film transistors

2008 ◽  
Vol 92 (8) ◽  
pp. 083509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun Jung Lee ◽  
Andrei Sazonov ◽  
Arokia Nathan
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Leakage Current ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Nanocrystalline Silicon ◽  
Silicon Thin Film

Thin Film Poly-Si Solar Cell on Glass Substrate Fabricated at Low Temperature

1998 ◽  
Vol 507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenji Yamamoto ◽  
Masashi Yoshimi ◽  
Takayuki Suzuki ◽  
Yuko Tawada ◽  
Yoshifumi Okamoto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Low Temperature ◽  
Glass Substrate ◽  
Spectral Response ◽  
Chemical Vapor ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Reflectance Measurement ◽  
Long Wavelength ◽  
Enhanced Absorption ◽  
Back Reflector

ABSTRACTThe performances of thin film poly-Si solar cells with a thickness of less than 5 μm on a glass substrate have been investigated. The cell of glass / back reflector / n-i-p type Si / ITO is well characterized by the structure of naturally _surface texture and enhanced absorption with a back reflector (STAR), where the active i-type poly-Si layer was fabricated by plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at low temperature. The cell with a thickness of 2.0 μm demonstrated an intrinsic efficiency of 10.7% (aperture 10.1%), the open circuit voltage of 0.539 V and the short current density of 25.8 mA/cm2 as independently confirmed by Japan Quality Assurance. The optical confinement effect explains the excellent spectral response at long wavelength for our cells through the PCID analysis. The higher sensitivity at long-wavelength of our cell appeared in quantum efficiency curves is well correlated to the result of reflectance measurement. The efficiency of 9.3% cell with a thickness of 1.5 pm was proved to be entirely stable with respect to the lightsoaking. Based on the result of various evaluation of diffusion length, it is postulated that the low temperature poly-Si prepared by plasma CVD gives a device quality of poly-Si film.

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