Plasma monitoring and PECVD process control in thin film silicon-based solar cell manufacturing

Abstract

A key process in thin film silicon-based solar cell manufacturing is plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of the active layers. The deposition process can be monitored in situ by plasma diagnostics. Three types of complementary diagnostics, namely optical emission spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and non-linear extended electron dynamics are applied to an industrial-type PECVD reactor. We investigated the influence of substrate and chamber wall temperature and chamber history on the PECVD process. The impact of chamber wall conditioning on the solar cell performance is demonstrated.