Highly moisture-resistive SiN/sub x/ films by catalytic chemical vapor deposition and their application to passivation and antireflection coating for crystalline Si solar cells

SiN/sub x/ films prepared by catalytic chemical vapour deposition (Cat-CVD) are applied to passivation and antireflection coating for crystalline Si solar cells. SiN/sub x/ passivation by Cat-CVD with or without nitridation before SiN/sub x/ deposition was examined. Both quite high carrier lifetime of 600 /spl mu/s and low surface recombination velocity of 20-30 cm/s were obtained and these values were comparable to those obtained using remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition. Successive in-situ exposure of NH/sub 3/-decomposed species after SiN/sub x/ deposition also reduces the surface recombination velocity.