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Contactless Measurement of Carrier Lifetime on Silicon Ingots and Bricks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

James S Swirhun ,
M Keith Forsyth ,
Tanaya Mankad  and
Ronald Alan Sinton
James S Swirhun
Affiliation:
james@sintoninstruments.com, Sinton Instruments, Boulder, Colorado, United States
M Keith Forsyth
Affiliation:
keith@sintoninstruments.com, Sinton Instruments, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Tanaya Mankad
Affiliation:
tanaya@sintoninstruments.com, Sinton Instruments, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Ronald Alan Sinton
Affiliation:
ron@sintonconsulting.com
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Abstract

High efficiency silicon solar cells demand the use of high lifetime silicon wafers. Characterization of boules and bricks before wafering allows poor quality material to be rejected before expensive processing steps. This paper extends simulation techniques previously used in quasi-steady-state-photoconductance to transient photoconductance decay measurements of high lifetime bulk samples. Simulated photogenerated carrier density profiles allow estimation of the bulk lifetime of a thick silicon sample with high surface recombination velocity.

Keywords

Siphotovoltaicphotoconductivity
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1210: Symposium Q – Photovoltaic Materials and Manufacturing Issues II , 2009 , 1210-Q01-06
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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References

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