Patent ID: 8482106

Claim:
A process for producing a passivation layer on crystalline silicon comprising the steps of a) coating the silicon with a solution containing at least one polysilazane of the formula (1), —(SiR′R″—NR′″) n - (1) where R′, R″, R′″ are identical or different and are each, independently of one another, hydrogen or a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl, aryl, vinyl or (trialkoxysilyl)alkyl radical and n is an integer and n has such a value that the polysilazane has a number average molecular weight of from 150 to 150,000 g/mol, b) removing the solvent by evaporation, resulting in polysilazane layer having a thickness of 50-500 nm remaining on the silicon wafer, and c) heating the polysilazane layer to 200-1000° C. at atmospheric pressure in the presence of air or nitrogen, resulting in the ceramic layer liberating hydrogen during the heat treatment to effect volume passivation of the silicon.