Infrared birefringence imaging of residual stress and bulk defects in multicrystalline silicon
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Buonassisi_Infrared birefringence.pdf
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4.22 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Ganapati, Vidya
Schoenfelder, Stephan
Castellanos, Sergio
Oener, Sebastian
Koepge, Ringo
Sampson, Aaron
Marcus, Matthew A.
Lai, Barry
Morhenn, Humphrey
Hahn, Giso
Date Issued
September 2010
Journal
Journal of Applied Physics
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Citation
Ganapati, Vidya et al. “Infrared Birefringence Imaging of Residual Stress and Bulk Defects in Multicrystalline Silicon.” Journal of Applied Physics 108.6 (2010): 063528. ©2010 American Institute of Physics
Version
Final published version
Abstract
This manuscript concerns the application of infrared birefringence imaging (IBI) to quantify macroscopic and microscopic internal stresses in multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cell materials. We review progress to date, and advance four closely related topics. (1) We present a method to decouple macroscopic thermally-induced residual stresses and microscopic bulk defect related stresses. In contrast to previous reports, thermally-induced residual stresses in wafer-sized samples are generally found to be less than 5 MPa, while defect-related stresses can be several times larger. (2) We describe the unique IR birefringence signatures, including stress magnitudes and directions, of common microdefects in mc-Si solar cell materials including: β-SiC and β-Si[subscript 3]N[subscript 4] microdefects, twin bands, nontwin grain boundaries, and dislocation bands. In certain defects, local stresses up to 40 MPa can be present. (3) We relate observed stresses to other topics of interest in solar cell manufacturing, including transition metal precipitation, wafer mechanical strength, and minority carrier lifetime. (4) We discuss the potential of IBI as a quality-control technique in industrial solar cell manufacturing.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3468404
