Silicon-based semiconductor devices

US4359367A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The Governing Council of the University of Toronto · CA

Inventors

• Stefan Zukotynski · King City, CA
• Ki-Bui Ma · Houston, US
• John S. Perz · Markham, CA
• Andrzej Szadkowski · Fort Wayne, US
• Ben G. Yacobi · Natick, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 25, 1980
• Grant date: Nov 16, 1982
• Expiry date: Jun 25, 2000

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02P70/50
• WIPO field: Semiconductors
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A new silicon based semiconductor device comprises a layer of amorphous silicon in which the density of energy states in the energy gap has been reduced by hydrogenation; this layer is deposited on a layer of a hydrogen-containing substrate material that can supply hydrogen in atomic form to the amorphous silicon. In processes of the invention the silicon layer and a substrate layer are hydrogenated separately to permit optimum hydrogenation; the silicon layer may be deposited without hydrogenation and hydrogenated subsequently with hydrogen from the substrate material. A specific example consists of a layer of hydrogenated amorphous silicon of about 1 micrometer thickness deposited on a hydrogen-containing chromium layer which is itself deposited on a carrier, the silicon then forming the active element of a photovoltaic cell particularly functional as a solar cell.