Influence of surface passivation on the minority carrier lifetime, Fe-B pair density and recombination center concentration

Three kinds of methods (0.08 mol/L iodine in ethanol, SiN_x:H, and 40% HF) are used to passivate solar-grade Czochralski (Cz) silicon wafers. Thereafter, minority carrier lifetime and Fe-B pair density of the wafers are measured using the microwave photo-conductance decay (μ-PCD) technique. Based on the measured minority carrier lifetime, it is found that the passivation quality achieved by 0.08 mol/L iodine in ethanol is the best, while that by 40% HF solution is the worst. For the identical wafer, the density distribution of Fe-B pairs is different when different passivation methods are used. When the wafers are passivated by SiN_x:H, there exists a close correlation between the distribution of minority carrier lifetime and the concentration distribution of Fe-B pairs. Furthermore, for wafers with high-quality passivation, there is a strong correlation between the recombination center concentration and the Fe-B pair density. All the analyses verify that the surface passivation quality of wafers influences the measurement results of minority carrier lifetime, Fe-B pair density and recombination center concentration.