Investigation on Light Stability of Injected Charge in α-SiNx: H by Plasma Charge Injection Technology

The plasma charge injection technology reported earlier can be a low-cost alternative to the Al
2
O
3
passivation technology. The charge stability under sunlight exposure is a key concern. We investigated the light-induced loss of injected charge for different nitrogen-to-silicon atomic ratios (x=N/Si) of SiN
x
, and found drastic improvements in charge loss with increasing x-value and logarithmic time dependent charge decays. The best result indicated a sufficient charge amount can sustain over the module lifetime (25 years). The charge loss is likely related to photo-generated free carriers and atomic hydrogens in SiN
x
.