Investigation of Oxygen and Carbon Impurities in Mono-Silicon Wafers During Rapid Thermal Annealing

Silicon-based materials are essential in many industries but face challenges due to impurities like oxygen, carbon, and metals, affecting their performance. These impurities originate during growth processes from raw materials, leading to defects that lower their efficiency in applications like solar cells. Research highlights the impact of oxygen and carbon on crystal structures and carrier lifetimes. Especially, boron-oxygen complexes further influencing performance in boron-doped silicon. Impurity effects in silicon-based materials are prominent during Rapid Thermal Annealing (RTA) process. This study investigates the structural impact of oxygen and carbon contamination on silicon ingot, during RTA with different temperature ranges. Samples extracted from the silicon ingot were subjected to Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods to analyse the change in oxygen and carbon bonding behaviour in the structure. The aim is to provide insights into the alterations induced by annealing processes and their implications for the silicon-based materials in the context of solar cell fabrication.