Low Temperature Annealing of Inkjet-Printed Silicon Thin-Films for Photovoltaic and Thermoelectric Devices
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Low Temperature Annealing of Inkjet-Printed Silicon Thin-Films for Photovoltaic and Thermoelectric Devices Etienne Drahi1, Anshul Gupta1, Sylvain Blayac1, Sébastien Saunier2, Laurent Lombez3, Marie Jubault3, Gilles Renou3 and Patrick Benaben1 1
Centre Microélectronique de Provence, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne, 13541 Gardanne cedex, France 2 Science des Matériaux et des Structure, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne, 42023 Saint-Etienne cedex 2, France 3 Institut de Recherche et Développement sur l’Energie Photovoltaïque (IRDEP), UMR 7174, EDF-CNRS-Chimie Paristech, 6 quai Watier, 78401 Chatou, France ABSTRACT Silicon nanoparticles-based inks were investigated in respect of their suitability for photovoltaic and thermoelectric applications. Nanoparticles with a diameter ranging between 20 to 150 nm were functionalized in order to avoid oxidation as well as having a good stability in suspension. After inkjet-printing and drying, they were annealed up to 1000 °C under nitrogen atmosphere by both rapid thermal and microwave annealing. The influence of the annealing treatment on the structural, electrical, optical and thermal properties was investigated by Raman, SEM, electrical and optical measurements. SEM and Raman demonstrate evolution of the microstructure at temperature as low as 600 °C. Optical, electrical and thermal properties depend strongly on the annealing temperature and tend to exhibit a modification of physical properties above 800 °C when the smallest nanoparticles begin to melt. The annealing method has been identified to be of primary importance on the layer microstructure and its thermal behavior. INTRODUCTION Amorphous (a-Si) and microcrystalline (μc-Si) silicon allowed the fabrication of thin films reducing the cost of fabrication of silicon solar cells. Nevertheless, it is possible to decrease the cost by avoiding vacuum-based process steps. In this objective, solution-based processes of silicon have a very strong potential being both low cost and large area compatible. More, inkjet printing process presents these advantages being a solution-based deposition process, but is also a non-contact, additive and maskless technology allowing patterning and working under atmospheric condition. Two types of silicon solutions are being investigated: liquid silicon-based on cyclopentasilane (CPS) precursor first demonstrated by Shimoda [1,2] and nanoparticlesbased (NPs) suspensions [3,4]. Furthermore of its lower price compare to CPS, deposition of Si NPs suspension allows the tailoring of the properties by the advantage of modifying the size of the NPs, their doping level and sintering degree [3–5]. In the present study, Si NPs-based inks were inkjet-printed and sintered by two methods: a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and microwave (μW) annealing under pure nitrogen (99.999%). The properties of the fabricated thin films were investigated by Raman, SEM, electrical and optical measurements with targeted applications such as photovoltaic and thermoelectric materials.
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