APPARATUS AND METHOD OF FORMING THIN SILICON NITRIDE LAYERS ON SURFACES OF CRYSTALLINE SILICON SOLAR WAFERS

摘要

The invention relates to an apparatus and a method of forming thin silicon nitride layers on surfaces of crystalline silicon solar wafers. It is an object of the invention to provide possibilities allowing thin silicon nitride layers to be produced on surfaces of crystalline silicon solar wafers, exhibiting a defined layered-material formation having desired properties. The apparatus of the invention is designed so that at a reaction chamber region, above a silicon solar wafer surface to be coated, there is a supply for at least one precursor containing gaseous silicon, this precursor contributing to layer formation. Moreover, a source emitting electromagnetic radiation, which is a plasma source, is disposed in such a way that the electromagnetic radiation emitted effects photolytic activation of atoms and/or molecules of the precursor(s). The plasma source ought to be so disposed, and is also to be operated in such a way, that there is no direct influence of the plasma on the silicon solar wafer surface and on the precursors that lead to layer formation, and it is exclusively the electromagnetic radiation emitted which acts.