Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of SnO2: Processing and properties

SnO2:F films produced by continuous APCVD from tin tetrachloride are an attractive candidate in the choice of the most appropriate materials of thin film solar cells. The purpose of developing this technology is to fabricate excellent SnO2 films while maintaining its advantages of large-scale manufacture and low cost. Among others, it is important to design an injector that is able to provide a stable reactant gas flow with uniform distribution in speed, composition and temperature. Hall measurement, Seebeck coefficient and ellipsometry measurements are used to provide the carrier concentration, mobility and other information about the properties of the films. The characterization shows that the main properties of the films deposited by continuous APCVD are close to or better than that of the commercial products fabricated by other technologies. Finally, the different measurements are discussed.