Prospects of Microwave Heating in Silicon Solar Cell Fabrication – A Review

IOSR Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IOSR-JEEE)
e-ISSN: 2278-1676,p-ISSN: 2320-3331, Volume 6, Issue 3 (May. - Jun. 2013), PP 28-38
www.iosrjournals.org
www.iosrjournals.org 28 | Page
Prospects of Microwave Heating in Silicon Solar Cell Fabrication
– A Review
S. D. Das
CEGESS, Bengal Engineering and Science University, India
Abstract : Solar energy is only renewable energy source that does not depend on earth's resources. Current
industrial manufacturing of solar cells use manufacturing steps that have many sustainable issues. So it
becomes very important to promote technologies that are more sustainable than current state of the art. This
paper will look into prospects of microwave heating for silicon solar cell fabrication in this perspective.
Microwave heating is very different from conventional heating techniques and application of microwave for
semiconductor processing purposes has many advantages. It provides avenue to crystallisation of amorphous
solids, reduction of defects, selective heating, reduction in processing time, sintering of powdered materials and
so on. Sustainability analysis of microwave heating over conventional heating will be presented to judge its
suitability in solar cell fabrication. Status of different technologies using microwave heating which could
replace or assist in different fabrication steps of solar cells will be reviewed. Based on these reviews, possible
fabrication schemes of silicon solar cells will be presented.
Keywords - microwave heating, solar cells, silicon, nanomaterials, sustainability
I. Introduction
Microwave radiation is part of electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies ranging from 300 MHz to
300 GHz (Fig. 1). Dielectric heating is heating of material using high frequency electromagnetic radiation and
microwave heating is subcategory of dielectric heating at frequencies above 300 MHz. Use of frequency in the
RF range (1-300 MHz) for heating purpose is not uncommon. This process of heating with electromagnetic
radiation is also known as electromagnetic induction heating [1]. Most often materials are heated with in a
cavity where electromagnetic waves are launched from a small dimension source such as a magnetron. These
are referred to as microwave ovens. The first commercial microwave oven was available as early as 1947 from
Raytheon. Microwave oven finds its most popular use in domestic application for heating of food materials.
There are many industrial applications of microwave heating as well, such as melting, smelting, sintering,
drying, joining, annealing [2-13] and many more. Some of the applications rely on indirect heating through
susceptors [14]. Microwave heating without the use of cavity is also possible and one such example is asphalt
pavement maintenance, where a heating wall is used instead of a cavity [15]. Microwave heating could be
adopted for semiconductor processing as well. Microwave annealing in semiconductor processing is a potential
alternative to conventional rapid thermal annealing (RTP). Microwave annealing can deliver much higher power
in less time than RTP (Fig. 2) [16, 17] and this can lead to extraordinarily high ramping rates of >2000
o
C/second in some materials [18]. There are many other applications of microwave heating in semiconductor
processes such as non-contact heating and selective heating, defect elimination in semiconductors, ultra fast
annealing, and recrystallization of amorphous semiconductors [19]. Solar cells based on microwave heating
have recently been introduced by Herman et. al. [20], where microwave heating has been used to produce nano-
particles and thin film solar cells were then produced using microwave annealing procedure. In this review an
attempt is made to discuss possible applications of microwave heating for different fabrication steps of silicon
solar cells. Discussion on sustainability issues of microwave heating will also be presented to justify its
suitability in solar cell fabrication. Also, part of the discussion will focus on nanomaterial fabrication using
microwave heating, which could be used for novel third generation solar cell designs such as plasmonic based
solar cells. Based on the reviews, technically feasible fabrication schemes of silicon solar cells will be presented.

Prospects of Microwave Heating in Silicon Solar Cell Fabrication – A Review
107
108
109
1010
1011
1012
1013
MICROWAVE
FREQUENCY (Hz)
Figure 1. Electromagnetic spectrum showing microwave range.
II. Microwave Heating
Microwave heating is very different from conventional heating. In conventional heating, thermal
energy is transferred into bulk of material from a heat source though conduction or convection via surface of the
material to be heated. However, in microwave heating microwave radiation generates heat in the material bulk
causing temperature to rise inside the material and subsequently thermal energy travels outside via the material
surface. Thus conventional heating relies on heat transfer where as microwave heating relies on heat generation
in the bulk, which could cause rapid rise of temperature in the material. With the rapid increase in temperature
materials could soften and subsequently could melt. Once radiation is stopped cooling begins. During
microwave heating some parts of sample may be heated to higher temperatures as compared to other parts of
the material, this is selective heating. Selective heating happens primarily because of spatial distribution or
anisotropy of material property such as dielectric function.
There are various physical mechanisms of microwave heating. Mechanisms of microwave heating
could be classified broadly into two different categories, dielectric polarization [16, 21] and ionic conduction
[6]. Polarization mechanisms depends on the creation of dipoles or permanent dipoles already present in a
material. On application of electromagnetic radiation the fields exert force on the dipoles on atomic scale. Since
the fields oscillates the dipoles have to oscillate with them. But atomic and molecular bonds of the material
oppose this oscillating force, which creates intermolecular friction and the dipole is unable to keep up with the
phase changes of the fields. This frictional loss generates heat. Polarization mechanisms include electronic
polarization, atomic polarization, dipolar polarization and space charge polarization. Electronic polarizations is
polarization due to displacement of nucleus with an atom. Atomic core is too heavy to respond to the
oscillations. Only the surrounding negative charge of electrons tend to oscillate. Electronic polarization occurs
at very high frequencies, near ultra violet range. Atomic polarization is polarization due to displacement of an
atom with in a molecule. Only infrared frequencies can excite this mode. Dipolar polarization is polarization due
to permanent dipoles present in a molecule. Millimeter and centimeter frequencies can excite this mode and this
is the fundamental mechanism that governs the microwave dielectric heating. Space charge polarization is
polarization due to presence of free charges. The free charges (free electrons) on encountering some boundary
(such as interface between two materials) creates local electrically polarized region. Dielectric heating is
negligible for electronic and atomic polarizations as time scale is too long at microwave frequencies. The other
mechanism of microwave heating is ionic conduction which generates heat due to drift of charge carriers in
presence of electric field against electrical resistance. Dominating mechanisms of heating inside a material is
thus dependent on material and frequency of operation. The most common frequencies in use lie in Industrial,
Scientific and Medical frequency band out of which use of 2.45 GHz is most common. However, other
frequencies such as 0.915 GHz and frequencies in the range of 0.9 to 18 GHz are also in use for microwave
heating purposes [22]. For semiconductor materials with low complex dielectric constant, the absorption of
microwave energy is low while with high complex dielectric constant absorption of microwave energy is high.
In case of highly conductive materials such as metals, microwave energy is only absorbed within a skin depth
from surface and rest of the energy is reflected from the surface. For this later case, eddy current is the
significant cause of heating [19]. In highly doped semiconductors selective heating could be achieved with
microwave heating where microwave will only heat the highly doped regions. In 2009, Tian et. al. have shown
specific layers could be targeted for heating in semiconductor hetero-structures with high and low doping layers
using microwave heating [23].

10
-10
10
-5
10
0
10
5
10
0
10
2
10
4
10
6
10
8
10
10
10
12
10
14
Time (sec)
IncidentPower(W/cm2
)
100 J/cm2
Figure 2. Comparison of microwave annealing and conventional rapid thermal annealing [16].
III. Microwave Heating Sustainability
One of the main advantage of microwave heating is that it is more sustainable than conventional
heating. Sustainable development can be defined as a social development which fulfills the needs of present
generation without endangering the possibilities of fulfillment of the needs of future generation [24]. From this
definition a technology should be sustainable when it is economically viable, socially acceptable and
ecologically viable for long run. Microwave oven which can raise temperatures up to thousand or couple of
thousand degree Celsius is cheaper than conventional furnace systems as system requirements such as
insulation, ceramic/ quartz tubes and other expensive parts are not required. Also, microwave heating is much
more efficient than conventional furnace as heating is directly produced inside the material which prevents loss
of energy due to heating of ambient. In conventional furnace there is significant loss of energy due to heating of
ambient and extra insulation material may be required to achieve high temperatures, which increases the cost of
the conventional furnace system. From the perspective of ecological systems sustainable technology should use
renewable resources, processes should be efficient and emissions or disposed materials from the technology
should not harm the ecology in anyway. Interpretation of these boundary condition for different technologies
will be different for different places. Thus sustainability of a technology is evaluated with respect to its local
environment [25].
Fig. 3 demonstrates the interaction of ecosphere and technosphere for microwave heating process, in
general. Conventional heating system and microwave heating system differs in their process of conversion of
electricity to heat and corresponding instrumentation. Definitions of renewable and non-renewable resources can
be adopted from Dewulf et. al. work [26]. Microwave oven consist of four parts, namely, the source
(magnetron), transmission waveguide, applicator and the electronic control unit for source and applicator. The
magnetron source, applicator and transmission waveguide all are primarily made of metal while controlling unit
consists of electronic grade semiconductor materials. These materials can readily be recycled. However, some
microwave ovens may use ceramic insulators like beryllium oxide which may be harmful to health. Other
sources of non-renewable materials are paints, wiring insulation, and non-degradable plastics. The single cycle
gaseous waste depends upon the material being heated and long term wastes harmful to ecology are the non-
renewable materials. However, some of these same non-renewable materials may also be used in conventional
furnace along with more harmful materials such as glass wool (as insulator) in some systems, which are also
hazardous to health. Thus microwave oven is more sustainable than conventional furnace system by virtue of
cost benefits, being more efficient and less non-renewable material use. Further, microwave processing itself is
expected to achieve good combination with distributed renewable energy such as solar cell, wind energy and
small hydro systems as microwave processing could be typically characterized by short time, small scale and
distributed type processes [27].

Electricity
Microwave radiation
Non-renewable Resource Renewable Resource
Materials
Instrumentation Sample Purging gas
Resources
Conversion
to heat
Heat Gases
Ecosphere
Long term wastesSingle cycle waste
Technoshpere
Ecosphere
Figure 3. Interaction of ecosphere and technosphere of microwave heating process.
IV. Microwave Heating in Silicon Solar Cell Fabrication
Crystalline silicon solar cells are most widely used commercially available solar cell whose market
share is largest among all forms of solar cells. A crystalline silicon solar cell is basically a p-n junction diode
operated in the 4th
quadrant so that power could be extracted from it. Commercially available cells typically
have n on p configuration where n-region is known as emitter and p-region is known as base. A simple
schematic of silicon solar cell is shown in the Fig. 4. Commercial crystalline silicon solar cells are
manufactured using five basic processing steps:
1. Saw damage removal and texturing
2. p-n Junction formation
3. Anti-reflection coating and surface passivisation
4. Electrical contact formation and annealing of contacts
5. Edge Isolation
After production of solar cells, solar panels are made according to wattage requirement of the applications.
4.1 p-n Junction formation
The emitter region is formed by doping a p-type silicon wafer with n-type impurity in n on p
configuration. A saw damaged removed and textured p-type silicon wafer is doped with n-type dopant using
diffusion process in diffusion furnace/ LPCVD system. This process is followed by phosphorous glass removal
(when phosphorous is used as n-type dopant and POCl3 is used as source of phosphorous) which completes the
p-n junction formation process. Two different types of emitter doping profile, deep emitter and moderately
doped or a shallow emitter with high surface concentration could be used. Both these profiles with good quality
surface passivization can lead to reduced surface recombination and hence increased emitter collection
efficiency [28]. However, to get good quality ohmic contacts heavily doped emitter regions and base regions
are a requirement. Thus the standard solar cell configuration becomes n+ – p – p+ . The heavily doped emitter
and base (n+ & p+) regions can cause recombination losses and hence needs to be minimized. The front contact
recombination losses due to heavily doped emitter region is minimized by keeping the emitter thickness thinner
than the diffusion length of minority carrier, while a built-in electric field is created at the back surface of the
solar cell or the base. The back surface field helps in minority carrier transport helping the largest number of
minority carriers cross the junction quickly so that recombination losses are kept at minimum. In this case only
recombination losses at front outer surface accounts for loss of photogenerated and injected minority carriers.
These recombination losses are severe for wavelengths less than 500 nm as heavily doped silicon's absorption
coefficient is very high at these wavelengths. If the doping emitter profile is deep and surface recombination is
high, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) and short circuit current density (Jsc) are both affected severely [29], which
intern affects the solar cell efficiency. Very shallow junctions (~100 nm) with high doping densities ~1020
cm-3
are very difficult to make using diffusion methods because conventional annealing steps that follows causes
emitter profile to change due to stimulation of defect formation which intern causes lateral diffusion of dopants
[30]. For ion implantation method high temperature annealing step is absolutely necessary for the removal of
damages and activation of dopants. But with high temperature annealing, diffusion of dopants is still a concern
[31]. Quality of junction determines the efficiency of a solar cell and quality of junction depends on the dopant,
dopant source, doping and annealing techniques. Typical industry standard POCl3 junctions are of 300-600 nm

deep and have 1-31020
cm-3
surface dopant levels. Rohtagi et. al. [32] have reported 19% cell efficiency with
phosphorous implanted and diffused emitters.
emitter
base
back contact
front contact
Figure 4. Simple diagram of a common monocrystalline silicon solar cell.
Junction formation can also be carried out using microwave heating by recrystallization of ion
implanted amorphous silicon. Microwave recrystallization of amorphous silicon can be done with and without
the use of susceptors. Vemuri et. al. [33] have recently shown that 40 seconds of susceptor assisted microwave
annealing can completely recrystallize amorphous silicon doped with ion implantation technique with 1300 W –
magnetron and 2.45 GHz frequency. The complete recrystallization was supported by Raman Spectra results
which showed peak at ~520 cm-1
for all annealing times greater than 40 seconds. Complete activation of dopants
was also shown with increase in annealing time. Lowest sheet resistivity of 81 /sq. was obtained for 180 keV,
1 105
As+
cm-2
and 100s annealing time. Further, diffusion for arsenic dopants have been shown to be less than
conventional RTA. However, a band of defect is observed where the amorphous to crystalline interface lies with
in the as-implanted structure. This was attributed to migration and precipitation of vacancies at interface. A
similar study was done by Thomson et. al. [1], with single mode microwave oven which was operated at 3000W
at 2.45 GHz . The dopant species in this case was boron (p-type for silicon). The higher power requirement is
due to non susceptor assisted annealing. The results showed sheet resistance < 300 /sq is achievable. A low
~6.5 nm shift in emitter profile was observed due to diffusion of boron. Lower value of implanted boron sheet
resistance (>100 /sq) with annealing time of 600s is possible and this was shown by Alford et. al. [34]. Alford
et. al. achieved these results for susceptor assisted case and attributed the low activation of boron to lattice
damage and reverse activation. Fong et. al. [35] achieved 81% crystallization of as-deposited amorphous silicon
of 40 nm thick (without implantation) on glass substrate at a temperature of 550 o
C with 1000W elliptical
applicator (2.45 GHz). This result was obtained using SiC susceptor and for annealing time of 600s. The grain
size of the resulted poly-crystalline structure was ~200 nm. It was observed better crystallization could be
obtained with higher microwave power and higher temperature of annealing. A comprehensive study on
junction formation was carried out by J Borland et. al. [36] in 2011 with implanted phosphorous and boron in
silicon and under various annealing condition and techniques. Simulated results of this study showed greater
than 20% efficiency is achievable using peak doping concentration of ~11019
cm-3
and with junction depth of
400 – 900 nm (Fig. 5). In deeper junctions surface activation level is limited by dopant concentration due to
increase in surface lifetimes which could result in 100% dopant activation. Thus deeper junctions would be
preferable for higher solar cell efficiency [37]. Experimental results showed 5 minutes microwave annealing
can achieve lower sheet resistance values (< 100 /sq.) as compared to higher temperature 750 o
C (90min) and
850 o
C (60min) with conventional furnace anneals at the greater than 11015
cm-2
phosphorous implant doses
and at as-implanted junction depths of 200 – 300 nm. For this study microwave annealing at 500 o
C was carried
out. Boron activation concerns using microwave annealing have also been highlighted in this study. M-H Tsai
et. al. [38] have proposed two step microwave annealing method for activation of implanted boron. However,
this method only yielded 436 / sq.

Figure 5. Solar cell efficiency as a function of emitter peak doping level for different junction depths
(simulated results adopted from J Borland et. al. [36] work).
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) can be deposited with various PECVD and sputtering techniques [39 - 43]. A
Brighet et. al. [44] has reported 1 m thick a-Si film while T. Karabacak et. al. [45] have reported high growth
rates of 10.70.5 nm/min of such deposition with different techniques. Thus amorphous silicon film thickness
up to 1m can be deposited for microwave solar cell applications. Also a-Si can be doped as n-type and p-type
according to need [46, 47].
Advancement of microwave heating in junction formation is not limited to shallow junction formation only. P.
Livshits et. al. [48, 49] have introduced a new method of local doping using microwave heating called point-
contact microwave technique. A point contact microwave applicator is shown in the Fig. 6. In this technique, a
hot spot is created below the point contact of the electrode due to concentration of near-field microwaves. This
rapid heating causes the material of the point contact to diffuse into the wafer. This phenomenon is confined to
the hot-spot region only. Thus this type of local doping can be designed for selective doping. Microwave input
power has almost liner relationship with junction depth. P. Livshits et. al. have successfully doped silicon wafer
with silver and aluminum dopants. Results of silver doped I-V (current-voltage) characteristics shows slight
slower turn-on as compared to commercial p-n junctions. The difference in current at forward 1V is less than 20
mA. Further the doping region was kept below 1 mm in lateral direction. Thus this technique can be explored of
selective emitter doping technique. Selective emitter doping improves efficiency of a cell by improving upon
low wavelength absorption of the cell.
Figure 6. Schematic of point contact microwave applicator.
4.2 Anti-reflection Coating
Junction formation is followed by silicon nitride (SiNx: H) deposition with up to 40% of hydrogen [50].
This layer acts as anti-reflection layer [51] and provides good surface passivation as well [52]. Very little work
has been carried out on microwave annealing of PECVD deposited silicon nitride. Si3N4 is a poor absorber of
microwave energy up to a critical temperature. This is because the conductivity of silver nitride is very low
(~10-16
S/cm [53]) and as skin depth of a dielectric material is proportional to square-root of conductivity [54],
at 2.45 GHz skin depth would of >1000 cm. Above critical temperature dielectric loss increases and hence
could start to absorb microwave energy [55]. Typical thickness of silver nitride on silicon solar cells is ~65 – 70
nm. Thus most of the microwave energy would pass through the silicon nitride layer.

4.3 Electrical contact Formation
Most popular commercial technique for electrical contact formation is screen printing [56]. Other
techniques such as buried contacts have also been commercially used [57, 58]. In screen printed method
standard H-grid patterns are printed using silver paste on front side of the solar cell and the back contact is
formed using two similar steps in which first Al/Ag rear busbars are printed and then in another step Al is
printed to the rear of the solar cells. Each of these steps are followed by a drying step. Contact annealing or
contact firing step is carried out to burnout the organics, form percolating network of silver particles and to
create sintered metal films on both front and rear. Sintering reduces the contact resistance and metal film
resistances. This intern reduces the series resistance of the cell and increase the cell efficiency. However, an
optimum design of the front contact is required such that both shadow loss and series resistance should be
optimally minimum values such that efficiency of the cell is maximized. Shadow loss is dependent on front
contact area coverage and metal film resistance is dependent on film thickness and film resistivity. Typical
metal finger in H-grid design is ~130m 12m (single printing) with specific line resistance ~3-cm2
and
typical contact resistance ~110-4
-cm2
[56].
Metalization using microwave annealing is possible using sintering of metal powers. R. Roy et. al. [6]
showed susceptor assisted microwave sintering of various powdered metals to full density was possible using
multi-mode microwave oven operating on 2.45 GHz. The cause of better sintering results was attributed to
multiple scattering and eddy currents rather than dielectric loss. In 2012, R. Cauchois et. al. [59] showed
microwave sintering of conductive silver nanoparticle film, produced using ink-jet printing, could produce
resistivity as low as 2.1 -cm which is very close to bulk silver resistivity of of 1.62 -cm and the difference
was attributed to electron scattering at grain boundaries which was low due to fully dense polycrystalline silver
film formation. Further comparison with conventional RTA under similar conditions showed RTA treated
resistivity to be 4 to 5 times that of bulk resistivity. This was attributed to partial sintering of the film. Similarly
microwave sintering of aluminum powder has been studied by L. C. Chuan et. al. [60]. The study showed
densities of 96.22% could be achieved. Thus microwave annealing could have a distinct advantage over
conventional RTA for solar cell metalization. Since microwave sintering is able to produce better sintering than
conventional RTA, low cost alternative metals, like copper [61], with poorer conductivity than of silver could
also be explored. As silver nitride is poor absorber of microwave, percolating network formation may be
hindered using microwave annealing, however microwave drilling effects could be utilized at this stage to
overcome any issues related to poor formation of of percolation network. Oxide formation on metal surface due
to high temperature involvement in presence of oxygen may pose significant problem for microwave annealing.
Preferred solutions for this problem could be use of N2 ambient or exploration of microwave heating under
vacuum and lower power.
Doped a-Si
deposition
Silicon substrate
Undoped a-Si
deposition
Ion
Implantation
Anti-reflection coating and surface passivation
Microwave annealing
Electrical Contact formation
Saw Damage Removal
and Texturization
Non -silicon substrate
p-type a-Si layer
n-type a-Si layer
Figure 7. Formation of p-n junction using microwave annealed recrystallization of amorphous silicon method.
V. Synthesis of nanomaterials using microwave heating
Nanomaterials are being increasingly utilized in solar cell research for various purposes. Different
forms of nanomaterials could be synthesized with many different methods. Preparing metal nanoparticles using

microwave heating is possible. Most common method of nano particles preparation is reduction of metal salts in
aqueous solution and reduction could be done with microwave heating alone [62, 63]. Microwave heating limits
the use of reducing agent making the fabrication process cleaner and extraction of nanoparticles becomes easier
due to absence of chemical byproducts from reducing reactions. Other nanomaterials can also be grown using
microwave heating. Differential microwave heating sublimation-sandwich method can be used for growing SiC
nanowires [19]. However, these nano wires had a pointed tip (cone shaped). U. O. Mendez et. al. have shown
nanomaterials such as nanotubes, nanofibers and microparticles of graphite, sucrose and boric acid can be
prepared using microwave heating [64]. T. Krishnakumar et. al. have synthesized flower shaped zinc oxide
nanostructures using microwave heating [65].
Silicon substrate
Ion Implantation
Microwave annealing
Saw Damage Removal
and Texturization
Figure 8. Method of monocrystalline p-n junction formation using microwave annealing.
VI. Microwave Silicon Solar Cell fabrication Schemes
Solar cells using microwave annealing could be introduced using different schemes:
1. Recrystallization of ion implanted amorphous silicon (Fig. 7). Advantage of this scheme is that thin film
solar cells could be made on non silicon substrates as well. For a non silicon substrate both n-type and p-
type a-Si layers have to be deposited one after another. Recrystallization step can be employed at this stage
or alternatively could be avoided till microwave annealing step after electrical contact formation. Later
method is shown in the figure as this method could potentially save energy and cost by utilizing only one
microwave annealing step. For silicon substrate, doping step could be done during a-Si deposition; or if ion
implantation is adopted then recrystallization step could employed after ion implantation or at microwave
annealing step after electrical contact formation. The first method could be better choice as lot of studies
have been carried out on recrystallization of ion implanted a-Si.
2. Second scheme is microwave annealing of ion implanted silicon wafer (Fig. 8). This scheme is similar to
commercial silicon solar cell production except doping is not carried out with POCl3 diffusion method but
using ion implantation method. Here again there is a choice of employment of microwave annealing twice
or once.
3. The third alternative scheme could be just replacement of contact annealing step of commercial
manufacturing with microwave annealing to attract the benefits of microwave annealing. In this method
POCl3 diffusion step will need to be adjusted for required junction depth according to diffusion of dopant
under microwave annealing.
4. Fourth scheme could be to use point contact microwave applicator for selective emitter silicon solar cells
(Fig. 9). In this scheme one could either use ion implantation or POCl3 diffusion for junction formation
followed by selective doping step using point contact method. Further steps in fabrication can be to follow
last three steps of commercial processing or second scheme.
5. Third generation solar cells are low cost high efficiency solar cells. Plasmonic is an interesting approach to
enhance efficiency of these solar cells. In this approach metal nanoparticles, which support surface
plasmon modes, can be used to couple light with underlying optical modes of the semiconductor (dielectric)
[66, 67]. Thus more light can be coupled to the solar cell, which increases its efficiency. Microwave heating
could be used for making the metal nanoparticles and then one can follow many different topologies to
make the solar cells [68 - 70]. Other techniques to enhance absorption or reduce reflection to increase
efficiency also uses nanostructures. Silicon nanowire solar cell is one such topology [71]. Impedance
matching or refractive index matching between surface of the solar cell and ambient is another technique.
This could be done using nanowire or nanocone arrays [72] or multilayered anti-reflection coating were

refractive index could be controlled by composite materials of nanomaterials embedded in dielectric matrix.
Microwave heating cold be used for both nanomaterial synthesis and embedding purposes.
Figure 9. Selective emitter silicon solar cells using point contact method.
VII. Conclusion
In this paper prospects of microwave heating in silicon solar cell fabrication has been reviewed.
Purpose of introduction of such technology would be to introduce more sustainable technology for fabrication of
silicon solar cells. Five different schemes of fabrication of solar cells have been introduced and for each step,
possibilities of such applications have been explored; particularly, in the area of junction formation,
metalization, and nanomaterial synthesis. Review of technology for such steps using microwave heating
suggested definite possibilities exit for microwave heating to be incorporated in solar cell fabrication process.
Further, sustainability analysis of microwave heating was carried out which showed it is more sustainable than
conventional heating systems which is a compelling argument to involve microwave heating in manufacturing
of renewable products such as silicon solar cells.
Acknowledgment
The work was carried out at Center of Excellence for Green Energy and Sensor Systems, Bengal
Engineering and Science University. Author wants to acknowledge the support provided by Prof. H. Saha and
Prof. A. K. Barua during this work. Author also wants to thank funding agency Department of Science and
Technology (Govt. of India).
References
[1] K. Thompson, J. H. Booske, Y. B. Gianchandani, and R. F. Cooper, Electromagnetic Annealing for the 100 nm Technology Node,
Electron Device Letters, 23, 2002, 127-129.
[2] E. B. Ripley and J. A. Oberhaus, Melting and Heat Treatment Using Microwave Heating, www.industrialheating.com/articles/, May
2005.
[3] R. Roy, S. Komarneni and L. J. Yang, Controlled Microwave Heating and Melting of Gels, Journal of American Ceramic Society.,
68, 1985, 392-395.
[4] K. Kashimura, K. Nagata, and M. Sato, Concept of Furnace for Metal Refining by Microwave Heating – A design of Microwave
Smelting Furnace with Low CO2 Emission, Material Transactions JIM, 51, 2010, 1847-1853.
[5] W. R. Tinga, and E. M. Edwards, Dielectric Measurement Using Swept Frequency Technique, Journal of Microwave Power, 3, 1968,
144-175.
[6] R. Roy, D. Agarwal, J. P. Cheng, and S. Gedevanishvili, Nature, 399, 1999, 668-670.
[7] A. Modal, A. Shukla, A. Upadhyaya, and D. Agrawal, Effect of Porosity and Particle Size on Microwave Heating of Copper, Science
of Sintering, 42 (2010) 169 – 182.
[8] E. Esveld, F. Chemat, and J. van Haveren, Pilot Scale Continuous Microwave Dry-Media Reactor – Part I: Design and Modelling,
Journal of Chemical Engineering Technology, 23, 2000, 279-283.
Silicon substrate
Ion
Implantation
Microwave annealing
Saw Damage Removal
and Texturization
POCl3
diffusion
Selective doping using
point contact method

[9] E. Esveld, F. Chemat, and J. van Haveren, Scale Continuous Microwave Dry-Media Reactor– Part II: Application to Waxy Extract
Esters Production, Journal of Chemical Engineering Technology, 23, 2000, 429-435.
[10] G. Chen, W Wang, and A. S. Majumdar, Theoretical study of microwave heating patterns on batch fluidized bed drying of porous
material, Chemical Engineering Science, 56, 2001, 6823-6835.
[11] E. Siores, and D. D. Rego, Microwave Applications In Material Joining, Journal of Material Processing Technology, 48 , 1995, 619-
625.
[12] J. H. Ahn, J. N. Lee, Y. C. Kim, and B. T. Ahn, Current Applied Physics, 2, 2002, 135-139.
[13] J. N. Lee, Y. W. Choi, B. J. Lee, and B. T. Ahn, Microwave-induced low-temperature crystallization of amorphous silicon films on
glass, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 82 , 1997, 2918 – 2921.
[14] T. L. Alford, M. J. Gadre, R. N. P. Vemuri, and N. D. Theodre, Susceptor-assisted microwave annealing for activation of arsenic
dopants in silicon, Thin Solid Films, 520, 2012, 4314 – 4320.
[15] R. Ma, L. Zhang, Z Zhang, Q. Fu, Design of Control System of Microwave Heating Asphalt Pavement Maintenance Truck, Proc.
IEEE ICIA, 2010, 1597-1602.
[16] B Lojek, Low Temperature Microwave Annealing of S/D, 16th
IEEE Int Conf. on ATP Semicon. – RTP, 2008, 201-209.
[17] Y.-J. Lee, T.-C. Cho, S.-S. Chuang, F.-K. Hsueh, Y.-L. Lu, P.-J. Sung, S.-J. Chen, C.-H. Lo, C.-H. Lai, M. I. Current, T.-Y. Tseng,
T.-S. Chao, and F. L. Yang, Microwave annealing, AIP Conf. Proc. ,1496, 2012, 123-128.
[18] Y.-L. Tian, Microwave based technique for ultra-fast and ultra-high temperature thermal processing of compound semiconductors
and nan-scale Si semiconductors, 17th
IEEE Int Conf. on ATP Semicon. – RTP, 2009, 1-5.
[19] M. V. Rao, Advances in Induction and Microwave Heating of Mineral and Organic Materials, S. Grundas (Ed.), (InTech 2011), 459-
482.
[20] B. Flynn, W. Wang, C.-h. Chang, and G. S. Herman, Microwave assisted synthesis of Cu2ZnSnS4 colloidal nanoparticle inks, Physica
Status Solidi A, 209, 2012, 2186-2194.
[21] J. M. Hill, and T. R. Marchant, Modelling Microwave heating, Applied Mathematical Modeling, 20 , 1996, 3-15.
[22] S. Das, A K. Mukhopadhyay, S Datta, and D Basu, Prospects of microwave processing: An overview, Bulletin of Material Science,
32, 2009, 1-13.
[23] Y. Tian, and M. Y. Tian, Method and Apparatus for Rapid Thermal Processing and Bonding of Materials Using RF and Microwaves.
U.S. Patent No. US7569800, Aug. 4, 2009.
[24] G. H. Brundtland, Our Common Future, The World Commission on Environment and Development (Oxford University Press, 1987)
[25] R. W. Kates, Readings in Sustainability Science and Technology, Working Papers, Center for International Development at Harvard
University, 2010.
[26] J. Dewulf, H. V. Langehove, J. Mulder, M. M. D. van den Berg, H. J. van der Kooi and J. de S. Arons, Illustrations towards
quantifying the sustainability of technology, Green Chemistry, 2, 2000, 108-114.
[27] T. Sonobe, Microwave Material Processing for Green Technology, 1st
IEEE Conf. Clean Energy and Techno. CET, 2011, 297-299.
[28] T. Markvart, and L. Castaner, Practical Handbook of Photovoltaics – Fundamentals and Applications (Elsevier Ltd., 2003)
[29] A. K. Sharma, S. K. Agarwal, and S.N. Singh, Determination of front surface recombination velocity of silicon solar cells using the
short-wavelength spectral response, Solar Energy Material and Solar Cell, 91, 2007, 1515-1520.
[30] A. Ural, P. B. Griffin, and J. D. Plummer, Fractional contributions of microscopic diffusion mechanisms for common dopants and
self-diffusion in silicon, Journal of Applied Physics, 107, 1999, 6440.
[31] J. S. Williams, Ion implantation of semiconductors, Material Science Engineering A, 253, 1998, 8-15.
[32] A. Rohatgi and D. Meier, Developing Novel Low-Cost, High-Throughput Processing Techniques for 20% Efficient
Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells (Photovolatics International, 2010) 87.
[33] R. N. P. Vemuri, M. J. Gadre, N. D. Theodre, and T. L. Alford, Dopant activation in Arsenic-Implanted Si by Susceptor-Assisted
Low-Temperature Microwave Anneal, Electron Device Letters, 32, 2011, 1122 – 1124.
[34] T. L. Alford, D. C. Thompson, J. W. Mayer, and N. D. Theodore, Dopant activation in ion implanted silicon by microwave
annealing, Journal of Applied Physics, 106 , 2009, 114902.
[35] S.C. Fong, C. Y. Wang, T. H. Chang, and T.S. Chin, Crystallization of amorphous Si film by microwave annealing with SiC
susceptors, Applied Physics Letter, 94 , 2009, 102104.
[36] J Borland, V. Moroz, J Huang, J Chen, Y-J Lee, P. Osterlin, P Venema, H Geerman, P Zhao, and L Wang, Selective and Homo
Emitter Junction Formation Using Precise Dopant Concentration Control by Ion Implantation and Microwave, Laser or Furnace
Annealing Techniques, 38th
IEEE PVSC, 2012, 2132-2137.
[37] V. Moroz, Modeling and Optimization of Silicon Solar Cells, NCCAVS User Group Conference on PV Technology, 2011.
[38] M.-H. Tsai, C.-T. Wu, S.-Y. Hu, Y. Li, Y.-H. Su, and W.-H. Lee, Activation of Solid-Phase Epitaxial Regrowth of Ultra-shallow
Junction by Two-step Modulatory Microwave Annealing, E-MRS Spring Meeting - Physics and Technology of advanced extra
functionality CMOS-based devices, May 2013.
[39] R. C. Chittick, J. H. Alexander, and H. F. Sterling, The preparation and Properties of Amorphous Silicon, Journal of Electrochemical
Society, 116, 1969, 77-81.
[40] W. E. Spear, and P. G. Le Comber, Substitutional doping of amorphous silicon, Solid State Communication, 17, 1975, 1193-1196.
[41] R. C. Ross, and R. Messier, Microstructure and properties of rf-sputtered amorphous hydrogenated silicon films, Journal of Applied
Physics, 52, 1981, 5329.
[42] E. C. Freeman, and W. Paul, Optical constants of rf sputtered hydrogenated amorphous Si, Physical Review B, 20, 1979, 716.
[43] S. Abdesselem, M. S. Aida, N. Attal, and A. Ouahab, Growth mechanism of sputtered amorphous silicon thin films, Physica B, 373,
2006, 33-41.
[44] A. Brighet, R. Cherfi, M. Kechouane, A. Benabdelmoumen, and A. Rahal, Effects of trimethylphosphine incorporation on
hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) properties, Physica Procedia, 2, 2009, 913-920.
[45] T. Karabacak, Y-P Zhao, G-C Wang, and T-M Lu, Growth-front roughening in amorphous silicon films by sputtering, Physical
Review B, 64, 2001, 085323.
[46] J. D. Cohen, D.V. Lang and J. P. Harbison, Direct Measurement of the Bulk Density of Gap States in n-Type Hydrogenated
Amorphous Silicon, Physical Review Letter, 45, 1980, 197-200.
[47] Y. Ohmura, M. Takahashi, M. Suzuki, N. Sakamoto, and T. Meguro, P-type doping of hydrogenated amorphous silicon films with
boron by reactive radio-frequency co-sputtering, Physica B, 308, 2001, 257-260.
[48] P. Livshits, V. Dikhtyar, and E. Jerby, Localized heating, melting, and drilling of silicon, 4th
World Congress on Microwave and RF
Heating Applications, AlChE Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas, 2004.
[49] P. Livshits, V. Dikhtyar, A. Inberg, A. Shahadi, and E. Jerby, Local doping of silicon by a point-contact microwave applicator,
Microelectronics Engineering, 88, 2011, 2831-2836

[50] F. Duerickx, and J. Szlufick, Defect passivation of industrial multicrystalline solar cells based on PECVD silicon nitride, Solar
Energy Material and Solar Cell, 72, 2002, 231-246.
[51] Y. He, Y. Wang, W Li, W. Han, Z. Hu, X. Qin, G. Du, and W. Shi, Optical properties and chemical bonding characteristics of
amorphous SiNx:H thin films grown by the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method, Journal of Non-Crystal Solids., 358,
2012, 577-582.
[52] A. G. Aberle, Progress in low-temperature surface passivation of silicon solar cells using remote-plasma silicon nitride, Progress in
Photovoltaics, 5 , 1997, 29-50.
[53] Y Nishi, and R. Doering, Handbook of Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (CRC Press, 2000) 324-325.
[54] K. Thompson, J. Booske, Y. Gianchandani, and R. Cooper, RF and Microwave Rapid Magnetic Induction Heating of Silicon Wafers,
Advances in Microwave and Radio Frequency Processing (Springer, 2006) 673-680.
[55] T. L. Alford, Systems and Methods for Susceptor Assisted Microwave Annealing, U. S. Patent No. US 2012/0196453 A1, 2012.
[56] D-H Neuhaus, and A. Munzer, Industrial Silicon Wafer Solar Cells, Advanced Opto-Electronics, Article ID 24521, 2007, 15 pages.
[57] S. R. Wenham, and M. A. Green, Buried Contact Solar Cells, Australian Patent 570309, March 1985.
[58] M. Rogol, and J. Conking, Solar Power in Focus, (Photon Consulting, 2007).
[59] R. Cauchois, M Saadaoui, A. Yakoub, K. Inal, B. D-Bonvalot, J-C Fidalgo, Impact of variable frequency microwave and rapid
thermal sintering on microstructure of inkjet-printed silver nanoparticles, Journal of Material Science, 47, 2012, 7110-7116.
[60] L.C. Chuan, and S. A. Hata, Microwave sintering of Aluminum Powder: final density, Proc. MMC, 2009, 1-4.
[61] A. Mondal, A. Shukla, A. Upadhyaya, and A. Agarwal, Effect of Porosity and Particle Size on Microwave Heating of Copper,
Science of Sintering, 42, 2010, 196 -182.
[62] S.-P. Zhu, S.-C. Tang, X.-K. Meng, Monodisperse silver nanoparticles synthesized by a microwave-assisted method, Chinese Physics
Letter, 26, 2009, 078101.
[63] R. He, X. Qian, J. Yin, and Z. Zhu, Preparation of polychrome silver nanoparticles in different solvents, Journal of Material
Chemistry, 12, 2002, 37383-3786.
[64] U. O. Mendez, O. V. Kharissova, and M. Rodriguez, Synthesis and Morphology of nanostructures via microwave heating, Reviews
on Advanced Material Science, 5, 2003, 398 – 402.
[65] T. Krishakumar, R. Jayaprakash,N. Pinna, V. N. Singh, B. R. Mehta, and A. R. Phani, Microwave-assisted synthesis and
characterization of flower shaped zinc oxide nanostructures, Materials Letters, 63(2), 2009, 242-245.
[66] H. Raether, Surface Plasmons on Smooth and Rough Surface and on Gratings, (Springer, Berlin, 1998).
[67] S. Pillai, and M. A. Green, Plasmonics for photovoltaic applications, Solar Energy Material and Solar Cell, 94 , 2010, 1481-1486.
[68] V. Ferry, L. Sweatlock, D. Pacifici, and H. A. Atwater, Plasmonic Nanostructure Design for Efficient Light Coupling into Solar
Cells, Nano Letters, 8 , 2008, 4391-4397.
[69] P. Spinelli, V. E. Ferry, J. van de Groep, M. van Lare, M. A Verschuuren, R. E. I. Schropp, H. A. Atwater, and A. Polman, Plasmonic
light trapping in thin-film Si solar cells, Journal of Optics, 14, 2012, 024002.
[70] H A Atwater, and A Polman, Plasmonics for improved photovoltaic devices, Nature Materials, 9 , 2010, 205-2013.
[71] L. Tsakalakos, J. Balch, J. Fronheiser, B. A. Korevaar, O. Sulima, and J. Rand, Applied Physics Letter, 91, 2007, 233117.
[72] J. Zhu, Z. Yu, G. F. Burkhard, C.-M. Hsu, S. T. Conner, Y. Xu, Q. Wang, M. McGehee, and S. Fan, Y. Cui, Optical Absorption
Enhancement in amorphous Silicon Nanowire and Nanocone arrays, Nano Letter, 9 , 2009, 279-282.

Prospects of Microwave Heating in Silicon Solar Cell Fabrication – A Review

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Prospects of Microwave Heating in Silicon Solar Cell Fabrication – A Review (20)

More from IOSR Journals (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Prospects of Microwave Heating in Silicon Solar Cell Fabrication – A Review