Impact of PECVD μc-Si:H deposition on tunnel oxide for passivating contacts

Passivating contacts are becoming a mainstream option in current photovoltaic industry due to their ability to provide an outstanding surface passivation along with a good conductivity for carrier collection. However, their integration usually requires long annealing steps which are not desirable in industry. In this work we study PECVD as a way to carry out all deposition steps: silicon oxide (SiOx ), doped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and silicon nitride (SiNx :H), followed by a single firing step. Blistering of the poly-Si layer has been avoided by depositing (p + ) microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H). We report on the impact of this deposition step on the SiOx layer deposited by PECVD, and on the passivation properties by comparing PECVD and wet-chemical oxide in this hole-selective passivating contact stack. We have reached iVoc > 690 mV on p-type FZ wafers for wet-chemical SiOx \(p + ) μc-Si\SiNx :H with no annealing step.