Rapid deposition of poly-Si thin film on glass substrates for solar application

In this paper, a rapid deposition method is developed for thin film poly-Si growth on various cheap borosilicate glasses. The depositing film is smooth and its thickness can be well controlled at 50 µm. The film thickness is mainly determined by the pulling-speed of glass substrates. The grain size of the film varies from 30–100 µm. Sinton PCD measurement indicates the effective lifetime τ above 1.1 µs after SiN x coating on the front surface and forming gas annealing. The actual lifetime can be even higher because of lack of passivation on the rear surface.