This work is mainly focused on an alternative method for emitter formation by means of boron diffusion from a boron-doped plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) doping source. With this approach only one high temperature process is necessary for emitter and BSF/FSF formation (co-diffusion), without depletion of surface doping concentration. This enables time and cost-efficient fabric...

N-type all-back-contact (ABC) silicon solar cells incorporating a simple oxide-nitride passivation scheme are presently being developed at the Australian National University. Having already achieved promising efficiencies with planar ABC cells [1], this work analyses the cell performance after integrating a surface texturing step into the process flow. Although the textured cells have significa...

We report on the “mid-term” results obtained in the frame of the European FLEXCELLENCE project (www.unine.ch/flex). FLEXCELLENCE aims at developing the equipment and the processes for cost-effective roll-to-roll production of high-efficiency thin-film modules, based on amorphous (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H). Eight partners, with extended experience in complementary fields ran...

Using real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry (RTSE) the evolution of the surface roughness in aSi:H thin-films grown by low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) has been studied as a function of the hydrogen dilution ratio Rd =[H2]/[SiH4] with 15 ≤ Rd ≤ 60. To describe the roughness evolution, we have used a 3D linearized continuum equation which includes a negative surfa...

The goals of this work were to synthesize stoichiometric silicon carbon nitride (Si1.5C1.5N4) films using the RF-PECVD method and to characterize the deposited material. Gas mixtures, as opposed to an organic monomer, were chosen for reactants. Gas mixtures allow for varying the concentration of the elements needed for silicon carbon nitride synthesis and thereby optimizing the composition of t...

A ubiquitous goal in plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) is to describe the correlation between film properties and categorical and quantitative input variables. The correlations within the high-dimensional parameter space are described using a multivariate model. Bayesian group analysis is employed to assess the grouping structures of the set of data vectors. This allows to iden...

Diamond-like carbon (DLC), a thin amorphous carbon film, has many uses in tribological systems. Exploiting alternative substrates and interlayers can enable control of the hardness and modulus of the multi-layer system and improve wear or friction properties. We utilise XPS and AFM to examine DLC concurrently coated on an epoxy interlayer and a steel substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapour...

We observed current density (J) dependent degradation in field emission current from multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). These degradations are recoverable and can be explained by emission current-induced dislocations along the MWCNTs. MWCNTs grown by thermal chemical vapour deposition (CVD) can emit stable current continuously for at least 1200 min with upper current density limits of appro...