Applied Materials, Inc.

Sunpreme, Ltd.

Other

Mattson Technology, Inc

Ashok K Sinha

Mei Yin Chang

Alfred W Mak

Moris Kori

Ming Xi

Hua Chung

Karl Anthony Littau

Jeong Soo Byun

Avi Tepman

Alan F Morrison

Zheng Xu

Robin W Cheung

Lawrence C Lei

Fusen E Chen

Ken Kaung Lai

Yezdi N Dordi

Dan Maydan

Jianming Fu

Praburam Gopalraja

Girish Anant Dixit

Wei D Wang

Ilya Perlov

Lawrence Chung-Lai Lei

Peter W Hey

Ratson Morad

Jun Zhao

Lee Luo

Talex Sajoto

Stefan A Wolff

Michal Danek

Xinliang Lu

Michael N Sugarman

Charles N Dornfest

Daniel A Carl

Alex Schreiber

Michael Xiaoxuan Yang

Avgerinos V Gelatos

Farhad K Moghadam

Dan A Marohl

Donald J Olgado

Semyon Sherstinsky

Gerardo Delgadino

Joseph Stevens

Hongbin Fang

Ho Seon Shin

Mark Robert Denome

Frederick C Wu

Simon W Tam

Srinivas D Nemani

Li-Qun Xia

Ellie Y Yieh

Liang-Yuh Chen

Shankar Venkataraman

Peijun Ding

Sasson Roger Somekh

Barry Lee Chin

Kevin P Fairbairn

Diana Xiaobing Ma

Yi Zheng

Virendra V Rana

Cissy S Leung

Ping Xu

Paul F Smith

Ju-Hyung Lee

Fred Conrad Redeker

Michael S Barnes

John Patrick Holland

Yan Ye

Daniel John Hoffman

Hiroji Hanawa

Imran Hashim

Tetsuya Ishikawa

Christopher F Lane

Shijian Li

Eric Andrew Englhardt

Stephen E Savas

Roderick Craig Mosely

Shawming Ma

Hari K Ponnekanti

Bryan Y Pu

Paul Janis Timans

Michael D Armacost

Steve G Ghanayem

Xin Sheng Guo

Brian C Lue

Liang Light Chen

Michael C Kutney

Romuald Nowak

Ezra Robert Gold

Turgut Sahin

Hongqing Shan

Xiaoye Zhao

Douglas H Burns

Robert J Steger

Sergio Edelstein

Leonid Selyutin

Mohan K Bhan

Zsolt Nenyei

Wilfried Lerch

Zhifeng Sui

Methods for fabricating busbar and finger metallization over TCO are disclosed. Rather than using expensive and relatively resistive silver paste, a high conductivity and relatively low cost copper is used. Methods for enabling the use of copper as busbar and fingers over a TCO are disclosed, providing good adhesion while preventing migration of the copper into the TCO. Also, provisions are made for easy soldering contacts to the copper busbars.

Low-cost solar cell metallization over TCO and methods of their fabrication

Substrates for solar cells are prepared by etching a plurality of metallurgical grade wafers; depositing aluminum layer on backside of each wafer; depositing a layer of hydrogenated silicon nitride on front surface of each wafer; annealing the wafers at elevated temperature; removing the hydrogenated silicon nitride without disturbing the aluminum layer. A solar cell is then fabricated on the front surface of the wafer while the aluminum remain to serve as the back contact of the cell.

Low-cost solar cells and methods for fabricating low cost substrates for solar cells

Plasma assisted low temperature radical oxidation is described. The oxidation is selective to metals or metal oxides that may be present in addition to the silicon being oxidized. Selectivity is achieved by proper selection of process parameters, mainly the ratio of H2 to O2 gas. The process window may be enlarged by injecting H2O steam into the plasma, thereby enabling oxidation of silicon in the presence of TiN and W, at relatively low temperatures. Selective oxidation is improved by the use of an apparatus having remote plasma and flowing radicals onto the substrate, but blocking ions from reaching the substrate.

Method and apparatus for growing thin oxide films on silicon while minimizing impact on existing structures

Solar cells fabricated without gasification of metallurgical-grade silicon. The substrates are prepared by: melting metallurgical grade silicon in a furnace; solidifying the melted metallurgical grade silicon into an ingot; slicing the ingot to obtain a plurality of wafers; polishing and cleaning each wafer; depositing aluminum layer on backside of each wafer; depositing a layer of hydrogenated silicon nitride on front surface of each wafer; annealing the wafers at elevated temperature; removing the hydrogenated silicon nitride; and, removing the aluminum layer. The front surface may be textured prior to forming the solar cell. The solar cell structure comprises a metallurgical grade doped silicon substrate and a thin-film structure formed over the substrate to form a p-i-n junction with the substrate. The substrate may be doped p-type, and the thin film structure may be an intrinsic amorphous layer formed over the substrate and an n-type amorphous layer formed over the intrinsic layer.

Low-cost multi-junction solar cells and methods for their production

A substrate is processed in a process chamber comprising a substrate support having a receiving surface for receiving a substrate so that a front surface of the substrate is exposed within the chamber. An energized process gas is used to process the front surface of the substrate. A peripheral edge of the backside surface of the substrate is cleaned by raising the substrate above the receiving surface of the substrate support to a raised position, and exposing the backside surface of the substrate to an energized cleaning gas.

Removal of process residues on the backside of a substrate

In some implementations, a method is provided in a plasma processing chamber for stabilizing etch-rate distributions during a process transition from one process step to another process step. The method includes performing a pre-transition compensation of at least one other process parameter so as to avoid unstable plasma states by inhibiting formation of a parasitic plasma during the process transition. In some implementations, a method is provided for processing a workpiece in plasma processing chamber, which includes inhibiting deviations from an expected etch-rate distribution by avoiding unstable plasma states during a process transition from one process step to another process step.

Methods to avoid unstable plasma states during a process transition

Methods for fabricating solar cells without the need to perform gasification of metallurgical-grade silicon are disclosed. Consequently, the costs and health and environmental hazards involved in fabricating the solar or silicon grade silicon are being avoided. A solar cell structure comprises a metallurgical grade doped silicon substrate and a thin-film structure formed over the substrate to form a p-i-n junction with the substrate. The substrate may be doped p-type, and the thin film structure may be an intrinsic amorphous layer formed over the substrate and an n-type amorphous layer formed over the intrinsic layer.

Low-cost solar cells and methods for their production

In one embodiment, a method for forming a tungsten-containing material on a substrate is provided which includes forming a tungsten-containing layer by sequentially exposing a substrate to a processing gas and a tungsten-containing gas during an atomic layer deposition process, wherein the processing gas comprises a boron-containing gas and a nitrogen-containing gas, and forming a tungsten bulk layer over the tungsten-containing layer by exposing the substrate to a deposition gas comprising the tungsten-containing gas and a reactive precursor gas during a chemical vapor deposition process. In one example, the tungsten-containing layer and the tungsten bulk layer are deposited within the same processing chamber.

Method for depositing tungsten-containing layers by vapor deposition techniques

In one embodiment, a method for forming a tungsten material on a substrate surface is provide which includes positioning a substrate within a deposition chamber, heating the substrate to a deposition temperature, and exposing the substrate sequentially to diborane and a tungsten precursor gas to form a tungsten nucleation layer on the substrate during an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. The method further provides exposing the substrate to a deposition gas comprising hydrogen gas and the tungsten precursor gas to form a tungsten bulk layer over the tungsten nucleation layer during a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Examples are provided which include ALD and CVD processes that may be conducted in the same deposition chamber or in different deposition chambers.

Method for forming tungsten materials during vapor deposition processes

Embodiments of the invention provide methods for depositing tungsten materials. In one embodiment, a method for forming a composite tungsten film is provided which includes positioning a substrate within a process chamber, forming a tungsten nucleation layer on the substrate by subsequently exposing the substrate to a tungsten precursor and a reducing gas containing hydrogen during a cyclic deposition process, and forming a tungsten bulk layer during a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) process. The PE-CVD process includes exposing the substrate to a deposition gas containing the tungsten precursor while depositing the tungsten bulk layer over the tungsten nucleation layer. In some example, the tungsten nucleation layer has a thickness of less than about 100 &#x212b;, such as about 15 &#x212b;. In other examples, a carrier gas containing hydrogen is constantly flowed into the process chamber during the cyclic deposition process.

Formation of composite tungsten films

The present invention provides an electro-chemical deposition system that is designed with a flexible architecture that is expandable to accommodate future designs and gap fill requirements and provides satisfactory throughput to meet the demands of other processing systems. The electro-chemical deposition system generally comprises a mainframe having a mainframe wafer transfer robot, a loading station disposed in connection with the mainframe, one or more processing cells disposed in connection with the mainframe, and an electrolyte supply fluidly connected to the one or more electrical processing cells. Preferably, the electro-chemical deposition system includes a spin-rinse-dry (SRD) station disposed between the loading station and the mainframe, a rapid thermal anneal chamber attached to the loading station, and a system controller for controlling the electro-chemical deposition process and the components of the electro-chemical deposition system.

Electro-chemical deposition system

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Ashok K Sinha