Newsouth Innovations Pty Limited

Adeline Sugianto

Stuart Ross Wenham

Brett Jason Hallam

Catherine Emily Chan

Pei Hsuan Lu

Ly Mai

Alison Maree Wenham

Chee Mun Chong

Matthew Bruce Edwards

Phillip George Hamer

Lihui Song

GuangQi Xu

Li Hui Song

Guang Qi Xu

Valantis Vais

A silicon device, has a plurality of crystalline silicon regions. One crystalline silicon region is a doped crystalline silicon region. Deactivating some or all of the dopant atoms in the doped crystalline silicon region is achieved by introducing hydrogen atoms into the doped 5 crystalline silicon region, whereby the hydrogen coulombicly bonds with some or all of the dopant atoms to deactivate the respective dopant atoms. Deactivated dopant atoms may be reactivated by heating and illuminating the doped crystalline silicon region to break at least some of the dopant-hydrogen bonds while maintaining conditions to create a high concentration of neutral hydrogen atoms whereby 10 some of the hydrogen atoms diffuse from the doped crystalline silicon region without rebinding to the dopant atoms.

High concentration doping in silicon

A method of hydrogenation of a silicon photovoltaic junction device is provided, the silicon photovoltaic junction device comprising p-type silicon semiconductor material and n-type silicon semiconductor material forming at least one p-n junction. The method comprises:

Advanced hydrogenation of silicon solar cells

A method is provided for the processing of a device having a crystalline silicon region containing an internal hydrogen source. The method comprises: i) applying encapsulating material to each of the front and rear surfaces of the device to form a lamination; ii) applying pressure to the lamination and heating the lamination to bond the encapsulating material to the device; and iii) cooling the device, where the heating step or cooling step or both are completed under illumination.

Thermal processing in silicon

A method of hydrogenation of a silicon photovoltaic junction device is provided, the silicon photovoltaic junction device comprising p-type silicon semiconductor material and n-type silicon semiconductor material forming at least one p-n junction. The method comprises: i) ensuring that any silicon surface phosphorus diffused layers through which hydrogen must diffuse have peak doping concentrations of 1&#xd7;10atoms/cmor less and silicon surface boron diffused layers through which hydrogen must diffuse have peak doping concentrations of 1&#xd7;10atoms/cmor less; ii) providing one or more hydrogen sources accessible by each surface of the device; and iii) heating the device, or a local region of the device to at least 40&#xb0; C. while simultaneously illuminating at least some and/or advantageously all of the device with at least one light source whereby the cumulative power of all the incident photons with sufficient energy to generate electron hole pairs within the silicon (in other words photons with energy levels above the bandgap of silicon of 1.12 eV) is at least 20 mW/cm.

A method for creating an inwardly extending impurity distribution profile in a substrate comprising crystalline silicon material having a background doping of a first impurity type, comprising: a) providing one or more additional impurity sources with at least two different types of impurity atoms within the substrate or in proximity to the surface of the substrate, with each of these impurity atoms having different diffusion coefficients or segregation coefficients; b) locally melting a point on the surface of the substrate with a laser, whereby the at least two different types of impurity atoms are incorporated into the melted silicon material; c) removing the laser to allow the silicon material to recrystallize; d) controlling a rate of application and/or removal of the laser to control the creation of the impurity distribution profile, with different distribution profiles for each of the at least two types of impurity atoms in the recrystallized material.

Formation of localised molten regions in silicon containing multiple impurity types

Growing community of inventors

Malabar, Australia

Adeline Sugianto