Search

We study light trapping in hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film solar cells fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition on various nanostructured back reflectors. The back reflectors are patterned using polystyrene assisted lithography. We have investigated the correlation between the back reflector optical properties and the corresponding solar cell performance. We have introduced double size polystyrene sphere patterned back reflectors and have provided experimental evidence for improved light trapping performance compared to single size polystyrene sphere patterned back reflectors. We have achieved high performing nanostructured amorphous silicon solar cells with an initial power conversion efficiency of 7.53% and over 20% enhancement of the short-circuit current compared with the reference flat solar cell.

We study light trapping and parasitic losses in hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film solar cells fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition on nanostructured back reflectors. The back reflectors are patterned using polystyrene assisted lithography. By using O2 plasma etching of the polystyrene spheres, we managed to fabricate hexagonal nanostructured back reflectors. With the help of rigorous modeling, we study the parasitic losses in different back reflectors, non-active layers, and last but not least the light enhancement effect in the silicon absorber layer. Moreover, simulation results have been checked against experimental data. We have demonstrated hexagonal nanostructured amorphous silicon thin film solar cells with a power conversion efficiency of 7.7% and around 34.7% enhancement of the short-circuit current density, compared with planar amorphous silicon thin film solar cells. Published version

Silicon carbide (SiC) field plate terminated Schottky diodes using silicon dioxide (Si02) dielectric experience high electric field in the insulator and premature dielectric breakdown, attributed to the lower dielectric constant of the oxide. This problem can be addressed by using high-k dielectrics such as silicon nitride (Si3N4) that will reduce the field, increase the breakdown voltage and consequently improve the lifetime of the devices. While the advantages of single step field-plate terminated diodes are well-known, the breakdown voltage can be improved even further using a dual-step field-plate termination. Our 2D-numerical simulations using MEDICI have shown an improvement in breakdown voltages in excess of 25% compared to the traditional single-step field-plate terminated diodes.

Dielectric materials with lower permittivity (low k ) are required for isolation to reduce the interconnect RC delay in deep submicron integrated circuit. In this work, carbon doped silicon oxide [SiO(C–H)] films are investigated as a potential low k material. The films were prepared by the radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique from trimethylsilane (C 3 H 10 Si or 3MS) in an oxygen (O 2 ) environment. SiO(C–H) films deposited with O 2 and 3MS flow rates of 100 sccm and 600 sccm, respectively have been previously found to produce dielectric constant as low as 2.9. This is attributed to the incorporation of carbon in the form of Si–CH 3 bond, which has lower polarizability compared to the Si–O bonds that were replaced. In this work, these low k films were annealed at 400, 500, 600 and 700 °C in a N 2 atmosphere for 30 min to determine the thermal stability of their properties. The films were characterized in terms of their thickness shrinkage, refractive indices, dielectric constants, infrared absorption, surface morphology and stress upon annealing. For annealing temperatures up to 500 °C, which is beyond the current highest processing temperature for back end of the line structure of around 450 °C, a slight decrease in the refractive indices and dielectric constants of the films are observed. The SiO(C–H) films also remain smooth and exhibit tensile stress with stress level that is within practical acceptable range. The results suggest that the SiO(C–H) films are thermally stable to be applied as low dielectric constant materials for deep submicron integrated circuit.

Reactive ion etching of SiC induced surface damage, e.g., micromasking effect induced coarse and textured surface, is one of the main concerns in the fabrication of SiC based power devices [1]. Based on CHF3 + O2 plasma, 4H-SiC was etched under a wide range of RF power. Extreme coarse and textured etched surfaces were observed under certain etching conditions. A super-linear relationship was found between the surface roughness and RF power when the latter was varied from 40 to 160 W. A further increase in the RF power to 200 W caused the surface roughness to drop abruptly from its maximum value of 182.4 nm to its minimum value of 1.3 nm. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) results revealed that besides the Al micromasking effect, the carbon residue that formed a carbon-rich layer, could also play a significant role in affecting the surface roughness. Based on the AES results, an alternative explanation on the origin of the coarse surface is proposed.

The drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) effect in 4H-SiC MESFETs has been studied using the physical drift and diffusion model. Our simulation results showed that the high drain voltage typically applied in short-channel 4H-SiC MESFETs could substantially reduce the channel barrier and result in large threshold voltage shift. It is also found that the DIBL effect is more dependent on the ratio of the gate length to channel thickness (Lg/a), rather than the channel thickness itself. In order to minimize the DIBL effect, the ratio of Lg/a should be kept greater than 3 for practical 4H-SiC MESFETs.

In this work, we present results on the study of bonding and concentration of carbon in 4H-SiC MOS structure by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The XPS spectra were fitted by several Gaussian lineshape functions. It is found that the so-called carbon clusters (C-C bonds) appear at the interface of SiO2/SiC, but are not seen in the oxide bulk. However, there are still some SiOxCy and Si-C bonds inside the oxide and the integrated area ratio of SiOxCy/Si-C bonds increases when further away from the SiO2/SiC interface. These observations can be interpreted in terms of the dynamic oxidation process that transforms Si-C bonds into SiOxCy bonds, which are then further oxidized to form SiO2 bonds.

A new technique that incorporates a biased screen grid above the substrate was used in conjunction with an ECR plasma for the deposition of diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films. The biased screen grid established an electric field that accelerates the ions towards the substrate and provides the energy required for the formation of DLC films. The use of a direct d.c. bias, instead of an r.f.-induced bias, has an important advantage of providing a narrower ion energy distribution. The results show that the screen grid technique is much more effective in accelerating the ions and, in addition, also overcomes the dependence of the ion energy on the geometry of the substrate holder and the magnetic field configuration. The effects of the screen grid method on the characteristics of the films such as Raman scattering, IR absorption and hardness were investigated and compared with the case of deposition using a d.c. bias applied directly to the substrate holder. The effects of changing pressure on the properties of the films under a constant direct d.c. bias were also studied and it was found that higher pressure leads to films with increasing DLC characteristics in an ECR-CVD system.

The role of nitrogen in the formation of polycrystalline diamond films prepared using a microwave plasma CVD system has been studied using micro-Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Although the nitrogen concentration in the films was too low to be detected by XPS, the Raman spectrum was found to be significantly affected by the nitrogen flow ratio. The intensity of the Raman peak at 1480 cm−1 significantly decreases, whereas that of 1190 cm−1 peak remains almost unchanged in comparison with the 1350 and 1550 cm−1 peaks with increasing nitrogen flow ratio. In contrast, the preferentially (111)-orientated growth and the growth rate were little influenced by the nitrogen flow ratio. These results indicate that nitrogen plays a special role in the formation and structure of the polycrystalline diamond films studied in this report.

Synchrotron radiation X-ray absorption and UV 325 nm excitation Raman scattering- photoluminescence (PL) have been employed to investigate a series of 4H-SiC wafers, including bulk, epitaxial single or multiple layer structures by chemical vapor deposition. Significant results on the atomic bonding and PL-Raman properties are obtained from these comparative studies.

We analyze a novel antenna effect that resonantly enhances the photocurrent response of end-contacted P–i–N junction nanowire gratings, due to coupling of incident radiation into the grating's multiple-scattering electromagnetic modes. Quantitative characterization of these resonances was performed by spectral and polarization-resolved photocurrent measurements on gratings with N = 500, 200 and 100 nanowires, aided by electron beam-induced current measurements, and in excellent agreement with electromagnetic scattering theory. Despite the small scattering cross-section of each nanowire, with triangular cross-section (height 8 nm, width 6 nm), the measured quality factor of the resonances Q ≈ 10 exceeds that of the empty SiO2 cavity without degradation for gratings of as few as 100 nanowires. Photoresponse retains sinusoidal polarization anisotropy characteristic of single nanowires. We discuss strategies for improving Q and present a grating design tailoring resonant field enhancement at red, green or blue wavelengths, for three different grating periods of ℓ = 460, 400 and 320 nm. Published Version