JPS59201412A - Manufacturing equipment of amorphous semiconductor element - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To strictly control the temperature of substrate at the forming of the layer for improvement of film quality or for adjustment by providing an independent heating area of substrate between the reaction areas of forming each layer in the process of forming each amorphous semiconductor stratum of a photovoltaic element. CONSTITUTION:Each vacuum chamber 31-33 is separated by a valve 14 and exhausted 16 independently. A tray heated to approx. 150 deg.C in the first vacuum chamber 31 carrying a substrate 1 on which a P layer 3 has been formed is, at first, heated 34 in the substrate heating area of the second vacuum chamber and after adjusted to an optimum temperature, approx. 250 deg.C, the tray is sent to a reaction area and an I layer 4 is formed. The tray is again heated to an optimum temperature, approx. 150 deg.C, and heat adjusted 35 and then sent to the third vacuum chamber 33 and an N layer 5 is formed. In this constitution, the film forming is carried out under strictly controlled conditions and amorphous semicondutor elements can be mass-produced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to amorphous semiconductor devices such as solar cells, optical sensors, etc., which are formed by stacking layers of amorphous semiconductors with different properties, such as amorphous silicon (hereinafter referred to as a-Si). The present invention relates to a manufacturing apparatus for photovoltaic elements such as.

FIG. 1 shows an example of such a solar cell, in which pin-type A-8T layers 3 to 5 are formed on an insulating substrate l such as glass via a transparent electrode 2 made of 100% or 5N02, etc. Furthermore, a metal electrode 6 such as M is deposited as an upper electrode. FIG. 2 shows the structure of the manufacturing apparatus for this device, in which the n-layer film 3, the i-layer film 4, and the n-layer film 5 are arranged in reaction chambers 11 and 12, respectively.
, 13. Each reception room 11, 12, 1
3 are separated from each other and from the outside by a partition pulp 14, each can be evacuated to an exhaust device 16 through an exhaust port 15, and a gas introduction pulp 17 is separately connected to each.

Each reaction chamber is provided with a high frequency electrode 18 and a counter electrode 19, and the high frequency electrode 18fi is integrated with a heater for heating the substrate. Using this device, pin a -8t%
3 to 5, the tray rib with the substrate 1 mounted thereon is inserted into the first reaction chamber 11 by a roller 21 driven by a motor or the like, and after the first reaction chamber 11 is evacuated, the pressure and flow rate are adjusted. Diborane gas and silane gas are introduced through the gas introduction pulp 17 that can adjust the Layer) 3 is formed. After the reaction is completed, the residual gas is exhausted, the silane gas is transferred into the second reaction chamber 12 through the partition valve 14, and the silane gas sent through the gas introduction valve 17 is plasma decomposed to form the i-layer film 4 on the n-layer film 3. Form further.

Similarly, the tray was transferred to the second reaction chamber, and a pn layer film 5 was formed by plasma decomposition of phosphine and silane gas.
Complete the formation of the 8t layer.

In this manufacturing apparatus, the formation temperature i9 of each layer 3 to 5 is not the same; for example, the n-layer film 3 is formed at a temperature of 150 to 250°C to the transparent electrode 2, so that after the formation of the n-layer film 3 -
Furthermore, since the substrate cannot reach the desired temperature within a short period of time when being transferred to the second reaction chamber 12, the film formation temperature essentially changes over time, making it impossible to obtain a high-quality film. be. Particularly when applied to mass production equipment, it is possible to transfer the tray into the second reaction chamber in which the plasma reaction for forming the i-layer film is constantly maintained within a constant and short period of time to form the film.
The above disadvantages cannot be avoided because substrate temperature adjustment must be performed simultaneously with film formation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and to provide an amorphous semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus in which film formation is carried out under strictly controlled conditions and is highly functional as a mass production apparatus. .

The purpose of this is to develop an apparatus that sequentially generates amorphous semiconductor layers with different properties depending on predetermined reaction conditions in each reaction region on a substrate that passes through a plurality of reaction regions arranged in a row, at a predetermined substrate temperature. 32 and 33 are separated by a partition system 14, and each is independently operated by a vacuum evacuation device 16. 10
Can be evacuated to a vacuum level higher than mTorr. The tray loaded with substrates is transferred using rollers 211 (similar to the device shown in Fig. 2).
It is done well. Plasma reaction is 0.1-10 Tor
High frequency electrode 18 that also serves as a heater for heating the substrate under a pressure of r
and the counter electrode 19. The second vacuum chamber 32 is composed of a reaction region composed of high-frequency electrodes 18 and 19, and a substrate heating region composed of a heater plate 35 for adjusting the temperature when changing the temperature for forming each conductivity type layer. By setting up a substrate heating area, e.g. 100-150°C in the first vacuum chamber.
After forming the n-layer film 3 on the heated substrate 1, the tray is not immediately transferred to the reaction area of the second vacuum chamber 32, but is once sent into the substrate heating area and coated with the desired i-layer by the heater 34. After adjusting the optimum formation temperature to 150 to 250° C., it is sent to a reaction area where one-layer film formation is performed. After one layer film is formed, the substrate is sent to the other substrate heating region, and after being adjusted again to the optimum n-layer formation temperature of 100 to 150° C. by the temperature adjustment heater 35, it is transferred to a third vacuum chamber to form an n-layer film. This preheating region may be located in the first vacuum chamber 31 or the third vacuum chamber, but in this embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows a modification of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, and the difference from FIG. 3 is that in FIG.
It is located at the point stored within 2. As a result, there is an advantage that the influence of plasma from the reaction region, which is possible in the structure of FIG. 3, can be completely avoided. Furthermore, a common advantage of both embodiments is that even when applied to mass production equipment that requires film formation in a short period of time with a constant cycle time, the substrate heating process can be performed separately from and in parallel with the film formation process. Therefore, strict temperature control is possible within the cycle time.

According to the present invention, in the process of forming each amorphous semiconductor layer of a photovoltaic device, a substrate heating region is provided independently between the reaction regions for forming each layer.

The present invention is applicable not only to the three-layer pin press and element formation described above, but also to any structure and number of layers.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a solar cell that is an example of a device manufactured by the apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side cross-sectional view of a known solar cell manufacturing apparatus, and FIG. 3 is an embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of a different embodiment. l...substrate, 3...p layer film, 4...i layer film, 5...
... N-layer film, 16... Exhaust device, 17... Gas introduction valve, 18... High frequency electrode, 19... Counter electrode,
31, 32. 33... Vacuum reaction chamber, 34, 35.
...Temperature adjustment heater, 41, 42...Substrate heating chamber. T 1 mouth 2rn

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1)-A method for sequentially forming amorphous semiconductor layers of different properties under predetermined reaction conditions in each reaction region on a substrate passing through a plurality of reaction regions arranged in a row. , manufacturing an amorphous semiconductor device, characterized in that a region is provided between reaction regions having different predetermined substrate temperatures, for heating the substrate only to bring the temperature of the substrate to a predetermined temperature for the reaction region through which the substrate passes next. Device. (g) An amorphous semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that a reaction region and a substrate heating region are installed in the same vacuum chamber. 3) An amorphous semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the substrate heating region is installed in a vacuum chamber independent of the vacuum chamber having the reaction region.