ADVANCED PLATFORM FOR PROCESSING CRYSTALLINE SILICON SOLAR CELLS

• US 20100087028A1
• Filed: 10/07/2009
• Published: 04/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Inventors: Porthouse, Keith Brian, Latchford, Ian Scott, Shah, Vinay K., Aqui, Derek, Holtam, Tristan R., Borden, Peter G., Zhou, Lisong
• Granted Patent: US 8,309,374 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 438/61
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67069 for drying etching
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67167 surrounding a central transfer chamber
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67201 characterized by the construction of the load-lock chamber
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67213 comprising at least one ion or electron beam chamber coating by ion implantation C23C; ion or electron beam tubes H01J37/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67236 the substrates being processed being not semiconductor wafers, e.g. leadframes or chips
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/1876 Particular processes or apparatus for batch treatment of the devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/50 Photovoltaic [PV] energy
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product

Abstract

The present invention generally provides a batch substrate processing system, or cluster tool, for in-situ processing of a film stack used to form regions of a solar cell device. In one configuration, the film stack formed on each of the substrates in the batch contains one or more silicon-containing layers and one or more metal layers that are deposited and further processed within the various chambers contained in the substrate processing system. The processing chambers may be, for example, physical vapor deposition (PVD) or sputtering chambers, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) chambers, low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) chambers, hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) chambers, plasma nitridation (DPN) chambers, ion implant/doping chambers, atomic layer deposition (ALD) chambers, plasma etching chambers, annealing chambers, rapid thermal oxidation (RTO) chambers, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) chambers, substrate reorientation chambers, laser annealing chambers, and/or plasma cleaning stations. In one embodiment, a batch of solar cell substrates is simultaneously transferred in a vacuum or inert environment to prevent contamination from affecting the solar cell formation process.

Claims

1. A processing system, comprising:

a transfer chamber having a first transfer robot disposed therein, wherein the first transfer robot is configured to transfer an array of substrates;

a first process chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot;

a second process chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot;

a load lock chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having one or more regions with a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; and

a substrate interface module having a second transfer robot configured to transfer the array of substrates between the substrate interface module and the one or more regions of the load lock chamber.

2. The processing system of claim 1, further comprising one or more robots disposed in the substrate interface module and configured to transfer substrates from an inlet region disposed adjacent the substrate interface module to the second transfer robot.

3. The processing system of claim 2, further comprising:

a second load lock chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having one or more regions with a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; and

a second substrate interface module having a third transfer robot configured to transfer the array of substrates between the second substrate interface module and the one or more regions of the second load lock chamber, wherein the second substrate interface module has one or more robots disposed therein and configured to transfer substrates from the third transfer robot to an outlet region disposed adjacent the second substrate interface module.

4. The processing system of claim 1, further comprising a substrate carrier having recesses disposed to retain each substrate of the array within the processing system.

5. The processing system of claim 1, wherein the array of substrates total at least 30 substrates.

6. The processing system of claim 1, wherein the first and second transfer robots each have an end effector with a plurality of elements configured to retain the array of substrates during transfer.

7. The processing system of claim 1, further comprising a loading module positioned adjacent the substrate interface module, wherein the loading module has one or more robots disposed therein and configured to transfer substrates from an input region positioned adjacent the loading module into the loading module.

8. The processing system of claim 7, further comprising an unloading module positioned adjacent the substrate interface module, wherein the unloading module has one or more robots disposed therein and configured to transfer substrates arranged in an array from the unloading module to an exit region positioned adjacent the unloading module.

9. The processing system of claim 8, further comprising an inlet conveyor positioned to deliver substrates to the input region and an outlet conveyor positioned to remove substrates from the exit region.

10. The processing system of claim 9, wherein the inlet conveyor and the exit conveyor are linked together to form a continuous conveyor.

11. The processing system of claim 1, further comprising a substrate reorientation chamber coupled to the transfer chamber and having a flipping device configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot with each of the substrates having a first side facing upwardly and simultaneously reorient the array of substrates such that the first side faces downwardly.

12. The processing system of claim 1, wherein the substrate supporting surface of the load lock chamber has a plurality of apertures disposed therethrough and the load lock chamber further comprises an actuator that is adapted to move the substrate supporting surface from a first position adjacent a bottom wall of the load lock chamber to a second position adjacent a top wall of the load lock chamber while pressure in the load lock chamber is being altered.

13. A processing system, comprising:

a first transfer chamber having a first transfer robot disposed therein, wherein the first transfer robot is configured to transfer an array of substrates;

a first process chamber coupled to the first transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot;

a second process chamber coupled to the first transfer chamber and having a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot;

a second transfer chamber having a second transfer robot disposed therein, wherein the second transfer robot is configured to transfer the array of substrates;

a pass through chamber coupling the first transfer chamber and the second transfer chamber, wherein each of the first and second transfer robots is configured to transfer the array of substrates to the pass through chamber and receive the array of substrates from the pass through chamber;

a load lock chamber coupled to the first transfer chamber and having one or more regions with a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the first transfer robot; and

a substrate interface module having a third transfer robot configured to transfer the array of substrates between the substrate interface module and the one or more regions of the load lock chamber.

14. The processing system of claim 13, further comprising:

a second load lock chamber coupled to the second transfer chamber and having one or more regions with a substrate supporting surface configured to receive the array of substrates from the second transfer robot; and

a second substrate interface module having a fourth transfer robot configured to transfer the array of substrates between the second interface module and the one or more regions of the second load lock chamber.

15. The processing system of claim 14, wherein the first and second transfer robots are configured to reorient each substrate of the array of substrates from a first orientation having a first side facing upwardly to a second orientation having the first side facing downwardly within the pass through chamber.

16. The processing system of claim 14, wherein the pass through chamber is configured to receive the array of substrates with each substrate having a first side facing upwardly and reorient each substrate such that the first side faces downwardly.

17. The processing system of claim 14, further comprising a substrate carrier having recesses disposed to retain each substrate of the array within the processing system.

18. The processing system of claim 14, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth transfer robots each have an end effector with a plurality of elements configured to retain the array of substrates during transfer.

19. The processing system of claim 13, wherein the substrate supporting surface of the load lock chamber has a plurality of apertures disposed therethrough and the load lock chamber further comprises an actuator that is adapted to move the substrate supporting surface from a first position adjacent a bottom wall of the load lock chamber to a second position adjacent a top wall of the load lock chamber while pressure in the load lock chamber is being altered.

20. A method of forming a solar cell device, comprising:

positioning an array of substrates on an end effector of a transfer robot within a transfer chamber;

transferring the array of substrates into a first processing chamber coupled to the transfer chamber;

processing a first side of each of the array of substrates in the first processing chamber;

transferring the array of substrates into a reorientation chamber coupled to the transfer chamber;

substantially simultaneously reorienting each substrate such that the first side faces downwardly;

transferring the array of substrates into a second processing chamber coupled to the transfer chamber;

processing a second side of each of the array of substrates in the second processing chamber.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

transferring the array of substrates into a third processing chamber coupled to the transfer chamber prior to transferring the array of substrates into the reorientation chamber;

processing the first side of each of the array of substrates in the third processing chamber.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein positioning the array of substrates on the end effector comprises:

positioning the array of substrates on a substrate carrier; and

positioning the substrate carrier on the end effector.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising transferring the array of substrates onto a substrate supporting surface within a load lock chamber coupled to the transfer chamber prior to positioning the array of substrates on the end effector.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

raising the substrate supporting surface to a position wherein the array of substrates are substantially adjacent a top wall of the load lock chamber;

altering the pressure in the load lock chamber; and

lowering the substrate supporting surface to a position substantially adjacent a bottom wall.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the first, second, and third processing chambers are selected from the group consisting of physical vapor deposition chambers, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition chambers, hot wire chemical vapor deposition chambers, plasma nitridation chambers, ion implant/doping chambers, atomic layer deposition chambers, plasma etching chambers, annealing chambers, rapid thermal oxidation chambers, rapid thermal annealing chambers, laser annealing chambers, rapid thermal nitridation chambers, vapor etching chambers, and plasma cleaning chambers.