Investigation on electrical properties in silicon p-n junction diode with thermal diffusion variation for solar cell applications

Diodes were fabricated on n-type silicon substrate using thermal diffusion method. Samples were diffused with boron to make a p-n junction diode at different thermal diffusion temperature such as 700 °C, 800 °C and 900 °C. Time taken for heated the samples were varied with 60 minutes, 90 minutes and 120 minutes. The effect on electrical properties of p-n junction silicon diode through variation thermal diffusion temperatures and times were measured using two and four point probe. The electrical measurement (I-V) results show that samples heated at 900 °C temperature for 120 minutes diffusion produced the lowest sheet resistance and resistivity which are 1.50x107 Ω/ and 1.65x102 Ω-cm, respectively as compared to others. On the other hand, the highest current value was obtained 54.60 mA when the supply voltage at 10 V. Thus, this indicates that samples heated at 900 °C with 120 minutes annealing was having higher concentration by having better resistivity and sheet resistance as compared to samples with lower diffusion temperature and annealing time. Hence, it show that samples with this parameter have potential to be applied for production of n-type silicon solar cells that aiming for having better electrical performance.