An ultrathin silicon oxynitride interface material, a tunnel oxide passivated structure and preparation methods and applications thereof are provided. The ultrathin silicon oxynitride interface material is an SiON film with a thickness of 1 nm to 4 nm, and the percentage content of N atoms is 1% to 40%. Compared with silicon oxide, the diffusion rate of boron in the SiON film of the present disclosure is low, which effectively reduces the damaging effect of boron, improves the integrity of the SiON film and maintains the chemical passivation effect. The SiON film with high nitrogen concentration can noticeably lower the concentration of boron on the silicon surface so as to lessen the boron-induced defects. Furthermore, the SiON film has an energy band structure approximate to silicon nitride, which increases the hole transport efficiency and hole selectivity, and further improves the passivation quality and reduces the contact resistivity.

The disclosed embodiments relate to an integrated circuit structure and methods of forming them in which photonic devices are formed on the back end of fabricating a CMOS semiconductor structure containing electronic devices. Doped regions associated with the photonic devices are formed using microwave annealing for dopant activation.

Method and apparatus for annealing solar cells that can contain lithium or hydrogen. Heaters, a current that is applied in forward or reverse direction, or open-circuiting the cells are used optionally with illumination from the sun or a controlled light source, which can be directed using reflectors, to increase the temperature of the cells to perform periodic anneals to recover energy conversion efficiency lost due to environmental conditions such as radiation damage and maintain desired operational conditions. Larger amounts of additional energy are harvested with the improved efficiency of the cells. Illuminating the cells with specific wavelengths of light can enhance the diffusion of the lithium or hydrogen, or their binding and unbinding from dopants or defects, in the silicon lattice. The lithium or hydrogen can diffuse into the cells via their inclusion in the polysilicon layer forming a tunneling oxide passivated contact. Dopants in the silicon can reduce annealing time and temperature.

Increasing the power conversion efficiency of silicon (Si) photovoltaics is a key enabler for continued reductions in the cost of solar electricity. Disclosed herein is a multi-junction photovoltaic cell that does not utilize a conventional interconnection layer and instead places a wide bandgap oxide conductor, for example, a metal oxide such as TiO.sub.2, between a top light absorption layer having a relatively large bandgap and a bottom light absorption layer having a relatively small bandgap. The advantageous omission of a conventional interconnection layer between the two subcells is enabled by low contact resistivity between the top and bottom light absorbing layers provided by the wide bandgap oxide conductor. The absence of the conventional interconnect between the subcells significantly reduces both optical losses and processing steps. The disclosed photovoltaic cell may thus enable low-cost, high-efficiency multi-junction devices through less complex manufacturing processes and lower material costs.

A manufacturing method for an integrated structure of a waveguide and an active component is proposed. The manufacturing method includes providing a substrate including a dielectric layer and a semiconductor layer, and the semiconductor layer includes a waveguide region, a transition region and an active component region; etching the semiconductor layer to form a plurality of waveguide trenches; depositing a waveguide material on the semiconductor layer to form a deposition layer, and the waveguide trenches are filled with the waveguide material; performing an ion implantation process on the semiconductor layer to form a first doped portion and a second doped portion; etching the waveguide region, the transition region and the active component region to form a waveguide structure, a transition structure and an active component structure; depositing a cover layer on the dielectric layer; forming two via holes and two contact pads in the cover layer.

The invention refers to a method for activating an absorber layer of a semi-finished thin-film solar cell. The absorber layer comprises CdSe.sub.xTe.sub.1-x, CdSe, CdS or CdTe. The method comprises the steps of providing a semi-finished thin-film solar cell with an absorber layer comprising a CdSe.sub.xTe.sub.1-x, layer or comprising at least two layers selected from CdS, CdTe, ZnTe, CdSe, forming a polyvinylchloride film on a surface of the absorber layer, and performing a heat treatment of the semi-finished thin-film solar cell with the polyvinylchloride film on it, wherein the temperature is in the range of 300 C. to 500 C.

An epitaxial structure of a nonpolar AlGaN-based deep-ultraviolet (DUV) photoelectric detector and a preparation method thereof are provided. The epitaxial structure of the nonpolar AlGaN-based DUV photoelectric detector includes a nonpolar AlN buffer layer, a nonpolar Al.sub.0.15Ga.sub.0.85N buffer layer, and a nonpolar Al.sub.0.7Ga.sub.0.3N epitaxial layer that are sequentially grown on a LaAlO.sub.3 substrate. The LaAlO.sub.3 substrate takes a (100) plane as an epitaxial plane, and AlN[11-20] as an epitaxial growth direction. With the LaAlO.sub.3 substrate, the epitaxial structure reduces dislocations and stresses between the substrate and the epitaxial buffer layer. By designing two AlGaN epitaxial buffer layers with different components, the epitaxial structure reduces a dislocation density and a surface roughness of the nonpolar AlGaN epitaxial layer, further accelerates photoresponse and detectivity of the detector, and enhances overall performance of the nonpolar AlGaN-based DUV photoelectric detector.

Disclosed are embodiments of a thin-film photovoltaic technology including a single-junction crystalline silicon solar cell with a photonic-plasmonic back-reflector structure for lightweight, flexible energy conversion applications. The back-reflector enables high absorption for long-wavelength and near-infrared photons via diffraction and light-concentration, implemented by periodic texturing of the bottom-contact layer by nanoimprint lithography. The thin-film crystalline silicon solar cell is implemented in a heterojunction design with amorphous silicon, where plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is used for all device layers, including a low-temperature crystalline silicon deposition step. Excimer laser crystallization is used to integrate crystalline and amorphous silicon within a monolithic process, where a thin layer of amorphous silicon is converted to a crystalline silicon seed layer prior to deposition of a crystalline silicon absorber layer via PECVD. The crystalline nature of the absorber layer and the back-reflector enable efficiencies higher than what is achievable in other thin-film silicon devices.

A passivation process, including the following successive steps: a) providing a structure including a crystalline silicon-based substrate having opposite first and second surfaces; first and second oxide films; b) applying ultraviolet radiation to the structure, under an ozone atmosphere, in such a way that the first oxide film has: a thickness strictly greater than the thickness of the second oxide film, and/or a composition closer to the stoichiometric compound; c) forming first and second polysilicon layers on the first and second oxide films, respectively, these first and second polysilicon layers comprising phosphorus atoms and boron atoms, respectively; d) applying a heat treatment at a temperature greater than or equal to the electrical activation temperature of the boron atoms so as to electrically activate the phosphorus atoms and the boron atoms concomitantly.

The present application provides a preparation method and application of a crystalline silicon solar cell having a shallow junction diffusion emitter. The preparation method comprises a diffusion process and a chain oxidation process, the diffusion process comprises low temperature diffusion and high temperature propulsion, and the chain oxidation process comprises high-temperature chain oxidation. According to the present application, firstly, a low-doped diffusion shallow junction having a depth of 0.15 um is prepared by means of optimization of the diffusion process, and doping with a certain dose concentration is formed on the surface of a diffusion layer by using photon thermal activation radiation energy of high-temperature chain oxidation, so as to solve the mismatch problem of alloy ohmic contact subsequently formed with silver paste, and finally, the photoelectric conversion efficiency is improved to a high degree.