New large area PECVD-system for a-SiN:H deposition at 13.56 MHZ

In the last years a-SiN/sub x/:H (abbr. "SiN" in this work) has become increasingly important for solar cell manufacturing, because of its unique ability to act as an antireflection coating (AR-coating) and as a passivation layer. A parallel-plate PECVD system constructed by Centrotherm in co-operation with Fraunhofer ISE is installed in the pilot line production for multicrystalline solar cells in Gelsenkirchen . In contrast to 40 kHz generators often used for SiN deposition in commercial system, this device is working with the standard excitation frequency of 13.56 MHz. Higher frequencies are supposed to introduce lower damage to the substrate surface during the deposition. In this work, we show that this system can be used for the deposition of SiN AR-coating layers for solar cell production as well as for high throughput deposition of high-quality surface passivation layers.