Injection-level dependent surface recombination velocities at the silicon-plasma silicon nitride interface

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 66; no. 21; pp. 2828 - 2830
• Main Authors: Aberle, Armin G., Lauinger, Thomas, Schmidt, Jan, Hezel, Rudolf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 22-05-1995
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.113443

Experimental evidence is presented that the effective surface recombination velocity (Seff) at p-silicon surfaces passivated by silicon nitride films (fabricated in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system) shows an injection-level dependence similar to the behavior of thermally oxidized silicon surfaces. Using the microwave-detected photoconductance decay method, injection-level dependent Seff measurements were taken on nitride-passivated p-silicon wafers of different resistivities (1.5–3000 Ω cm). The obtained Seff values also show that for low-resistivity substrates (≤2 Ω cm), nitride passivation is as effective as conventional oxide passivation (and even superior at low injection levels) and furthermore offers the advantage of a less pronounced injection-level dependence.