Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd.

Panaosnic Corporation

Ichiro Nakayama

Tomohiro Okumura

Bunji Mizuno

Yuichiro Sasaki

Cheng-Guo Jin

Hiroyuki Ito

Katsumi Okashita

Satoshi Maeshima

Masafumi Kubota

Yoshihiro Yanagi

Noboru Nomura

Tokuhiko Tamaki

Mitsuo Saitoh

Masuo Tanno

Hiroaki Nakaoka

Mitsuhiro Ohkuni

Michihiko Takase

Hisataka Kanada

Kazuhiro Mori

Kenji Harafuji

Hideo Haraguchi

Hiroshi Kawaura

Tetsuya Yukimoto

Hiroshi Tanabe

Hideo Nakagawa

Yuichiro Yamada

Hideki Tamura

Naoki Suzuki

Masaki Suzuki

Kibatsu Shinohara

Shigenori Hayashi

Yasushi Taniguchi

Hitoshi Yamanishi

Tsuyoshi Nomura

Naoshi Yamaguchi

Nobuyuki Kamikihara

Tadashi Imai

Yukihiro Maegawa

Yoshihisa Ohido

Yukiya Usui

Shozo Watanabe

Mitsuhiro Okuni

Shigeru Sankawa, Sr

Kouji Arai

Kenji Sumida

Minoru Kanda

Shiniti Matamura

Masabumi Kubota

Chikako Goto

Syouzou Watanabe

Taro Kitaoka

According to the invention, there is provided a plasma processing apparatus which can generate plasma stably and efficiently, and can efficiently treat all of the desired regions to be treated of a base material within a short period of time. Provided is a plasma processing apparatus including an opening portion having an opening width of 1 mm or more; a dielectric member that defines a circular chamber constituting a circular space which communicates the opening; a gas supply pipe that introduces gas into an inside of the circular chamber; a coil that is provided in a vicinity of the circular chamber; a high-frequency power supply that is connected to the coil; and a base material mounting table on which a base material is disposed near the opening.

Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a novel silicon substrate having a textured surface by dry-etching the surface of a silicon substrate having (111) orientation and thereby forming a texture thereon. The present invention provides a silicon substrate having (111) orientation, said silicon substrate having a textured surface that includes multiple protrusions which each comprise three slant faces and have heights of 100 to 8000 nm. This process for producing a silicon substrate includes: a step of preparing a silicon substrate having (111) orientation; and a step of blowing an etching gas onto the surface of the silicon substrate, said etching gas containing one or more gases selected from the group consisting of ClF3, XeF2, BrF3, BrF5 and NF3.

Silicon substrate having textured surface, and process for producing same

Disclosed is a polycrystalline-type silicon solar cell which can be produced at low cost by forming a polycrystalline silicon film having a PN junction in a simple manner. Specifically, an amorphous silicon film produced by sputtering using a dopant-containing silicon target is polycrystallized with plasma, and a PN junction is formed in the amorphous silicon film, thereby producing a polycrystalline silicon film having a PN junction. The polycrystalline silicon film having a PN junction is used as a silicon substrate for a polycrystalline-type silicon solar cell. Also disclosed is a technique for producing a dopant-containing silicon target from a silicon ingot.

Polycrystalline-type solar cell panel and process for production thereof

In a plasma torch unit, copper rods forming a coil as a whole are disposed inside copper rod inserting holes formed in a quartz block so that the quartz block is cooled by water flowing inside the copper rod inserting holes and cooling water pipes. A plasma ejection port is formed on the lowermost portion of the torch unit. While a gas is being supplied into a space inside an elongated chamber, high-frequency power is supplied to the copper rods to generate plasma in the space inside the elongated chamber so that the plasma is applied to a substrate.

Plasma processing method

The purpose of the present invention is to obtain a finer texture for a silicon substrate having a textured surface and thereby obtain a thinner silicon substrate for a solar cell. The invention provides a silicon substrate that has a thickness of 50 [mu]m or less and substrate surface orientation (111), and that has a textured surface on which a texture has been formed. Such a silicon substrate is produced by a process comprising a step (A) for preparing a silicon substrate that preferably has a thickness of 50 [mu]m or less and substrate surface orientation (111), and a step (B) for texturing by blowing etching as comprising a fluorine-containing gas onto the surface of the prepared silicon substrate.

Silicon substrate having textured surface, solar cell having same, and method for producing same

In order to realize a plasma doping method capable of carrying out a stable low-density doping, exhaustion is carried out with a pump while introducing a predetermined gas into a vacuum chamber from a gas supplying apparatus, the pressure of the vacuum chamber is held at a predetermined pressure and a high frequency power is supplied to a coil from a high frequency power source. After the generation of plasma in the vacuum chamber, the pressure of the vacuum chamber is lowered, and the low-density plasma doping is performed to a substrate placed on a substrate electrode. Moreover, the pressure of the vacuum chamber is gradually lowered, and the high frequency power is gradually increased, thereby the low-density plasma doping is carried out to the substrate placed on the substrate electrode. Furthermore, a forward power Pf and a reflected power Pr of the high frequency power supplied to the substrate electrode are sampled at a high speed, and when a value of which the power difference Pf-Pr is integrated with respect to time reaches a predetermined value, the supply of the high frequency power is suspended.

Plasma doping method and plasma doping apparatus

A base material is placed on a base material placement face of a base material placement table. An inductively coupled plasma torch unit is structured with a cylindrical chamber structured with a cylinder made of an insulating material and provided with a rectangular slit-like plasma jet port, and lids closing opposing ends of the cylinder, a gas jet port that supplies gas into the cylindrical chamber, and a solenoid coil that generates a high frequency electromagnetic field in the cylindrical chamber. By a high frequency power supply supplying a high frequency power to the solenoid coil, plasma is generated in the cylindrical chamber, and the plasma is emitted from the plasma jet port to the base material. While relatively shifting the plasma torch unit and the base material placement table, a base material surface can be subjected to heat treatment.

In a plasma doping device according to the invention, a vacuum chamber is evacuated with a turbo-molecular pump as an exhaust device via a exhaust port while a predetermined gas is being introduced from a gas supply device in order to maintain the inside of the vacuum chamber to a predetermined pressure with a pressure regulating valve. A high-frequency power of 13.56 MHz is supplied by a high-frequency power source to a coil provided in the vicinity of a dielectric window opposed to a sample electrode to generate inductive-coupling plasma in the vacuum chamber. A high-frequency power source for supplying a high-frequency power to the sample electrode is provided. Uniformity of processing is enhanced by driving a gate shutter and covering a through gate.

Plasma doping method with gate shutter

Plasma processing apparatus and method thereof

In a plasma torch unit, a conductor rod having a spiral shape is disposed inside a quartz pipe having a surface coated with boron glass, and a brass block is disposed on the periphery thereof. While a gas is being supplied into a cylindrical chamber, a high-frequency power is supplied to the conductor rod and a plasma is generated in the cylindrical chamber, so that a base material is irradiated with the plasma.

Plasma doping method and apparatus thereof

With the evacuation of an interior of a vacuum chamber halted and with gas supply into the vacuum chamber halted, in a state that a mixed gas of helium gas and diborane gas is sealed in the vacuum chamber, a plasma is generated in a vacuum vessel and simultaneously a high-frequency power is supplied to a sample electrode. By the high-frequency power supplied to the sample electrode, boron is introduced to a proximity to a substrate surface.

Plasma processing method and apparatus

In a plasma doping device according to the invention, a vacuum chamber () is evacuated with a turbo-molecular pump () as an exhaust device via a exhaust portwhile a predetermined gas is being introduced from a gas supply device () in order to maintain the inside of the vacuum chamber () to a predetermined pressure with a pressure regulating valve (). A high-frequency power of 13.56 MHz is supplied by a high-frequency power source () to a coil () provided in the vicinity of a dielectric window () opposed to a sample electrode () to generate inductive-coupling plasma in the vacuum chamber (). A high-frequency power source () for supplying a high-frequency power to the sample electrode () is provided. Uniformity of processing is enhanced by driving a gate shutter () and covering a through gate ().

Plasma doping device with gate shutter

It is intended to provide a plasma doping method and apparatus which are superior in the controllability of the concentration of an impurity that is introduced into a surface layer of a sample. A prescribed gas is introduced into a vacuum containerfrom a gas supply apparatuswhile being exhausted by a turbomolecular pumpas an exhaust apparatus. The pressure in the vacuum containeris kept at a prescribed value by a pressure regulating valve. High-frequency electric power of 13.56 MHz is supplied from a high-frequency power sourceto a coildisposed close to a dielectric windowwhich is opposed to a sample electrode, whereby induction-coupled plasma is generated in the vacuum container. A high-frequency power sourcefor supplying high-frequency electric power to the sample electrodeis provided. Every time a prescribed number of samples have been processed, a dummy sample is subjected to plasma doping and then to heating. The conditions for processing of a sample are controlled so that the measurement value of the surface sheet resistance becomes equal to a prescribed value, whereby the controllability of the impurity concentration can be increased.

Plasma doping method and apparatus

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Osaka, Japan

Ichiro Nakayama