Characteristic Evaluation of SiNx: H Films Passivation Effect on Ga-doped Multi-crystalline Silicon Wafers

This paper presents the effect of silicon nitride (SiN
_x
:H) films formed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method on Ga-doped multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) wafers including the passivation quality and carrier lifetime improvement after hydrogenation. The FT-IR spectra of SiN
_x
:H films deposited at different SiH
₄
/NH
₃
gas flow ratios in PECVD are used to calculated the hydrogen concentrations and bond densities of Si-H
_n
, N-H and Si-N were calculated. Furthermore, the effect of forming gas annealing (FGA) on the effective lifetime of passivated wafers by PECVD is investigated at different temperatures