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Effect of High Temperature Annealing on Crystal Structure and Electrical Properties of Multicrystalline Silicon by the Metallurgical Method

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Abstract

The defects of dislocations and grain boundaries (GBs) could significantly reduce the electrical properties of multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells. In this manuscript, the influence of crystal defects on the electrical properties of mc-Si was investigated, aims to carry out the research about the influence of crystal defects on the electrical properties of mc-Si. Purified metallurgical grade N type mc-Si ingot was obtained with the method of vacuum directional solidification technique by employing industrial production ingot furnace. The variations in grain boundaries and dislocations were characterized by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and their effects on the electrical properties of mc-Si before and after annealing at different heat insulating time were investigated. Experimental results showed that high temperature annealing process could significantly improve the electrical properties of mc-Si, the minority carrier lifetime was improved from 0.599 μs to 0.770 μs after 10 h insulation, with a significant increase of 28.61%. Experimental results indicated that high temperature annealing process could significantly eliminate the crystal defects of multicrystalline silicon. The crystal defects was eliminated more obviously with prolonged heat preservation time. When treated by high temperature annealing, the proportion of small angle grain boundaries in the same region can be increased by as high as 13.45%. Moreover, the whole grain sizes of partly region of silicon wafer could be increased by 20000μm2, increased by 15.89% compared with the original grain sizes. Based on the experiment phenomena, we attributed the improvement in the electrical properties of mc-Si to the elimination of dislocations, increased grain sizes and migration of GBs.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Liexing Zhou for the support in the EBSD analysis. This research was financially supported by the Program for Innovative Research Team in University of Education of China (No.IRT-17R48). the Reserve Talents of Young and Middle-aged Academic and Technical Leaders in Yunnan Province (2018HB009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The National Engineering Laboratory for Vacuum Metallurgy, State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Hongyuan Shen, Xiaocong Deng, Kuixian Wei, Wenhui Ma & Longzhong Gao

  2. Key Laboratory for Nonferrous Vacuum Metallurgy of Yunnan Province, Engineering Research Center for Silicon Metallurgy and Silicon Materials of Yunnan Provincial Universities, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Kuixian Wei, Wenhui Ma & Longzhong Gao

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  1. Hongyuan Shen
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  2. Xiaocong Deng
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  3. Kuixian Wei
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Correspondence to Kuixian Wei or Wenhui Ma.

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Shen, H., Deng, X., Wei, K. et al. Effect of High Temperature Annealing on Crystal Structure and Electrical Properties of Multicrystalline Silicon by the Metallurgical Method. Silicon 12, 2099–2106 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00296-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00296-1

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