On the texturization of monocrystalline silicon with sodium carbonate solutions

The texturization of monocrystalline silicon wafers using sodium carbonate solution has been investigated. This etching process has been evaluated in terms of the surface morphology and the reflectance value. The results show that for low concentration of sodium carbonate the increase of texturing time decreases the reflectance value because of the change in morphology from hillocks to pyramidal; on the contrary for intermediate and high concentrations the increase of time has a detrimental effect on texturization because it increases both the pyramid sizes and their non-uniform distribution. However, a good cell performance could be obtained by etching at high concentrations and short times.     

Investigation of texturization for monocrystalline silicon solar cells with different kinds of alkaline

In this paper, monocrystalline silicon was textured with different kind of etchants for solar cells, respectively. It was found that, only with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or sodium acetate anhydrous (CH₃COONa) solution, the textural results were very weak, resulting in high reflectance of silicon surface. However, if using the mixture solution of NaOH and CH₃COONa, the reflectance was noticeably decreased. Moreover, the dependence of reflectance on the etching time showed that longer etching time was necessary for texturization in the NaOH+CH₃COONa+H₂O system. And it was also found that the addition of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to this mixture solution had a detrimental effect on the texturization. All these results suggested that acetate (CH₃COO⁻) plays a similar role as IPA for alkaline texturization, but they cannot coexist. Finally, the mechanisms of texturization with different kinds of etchant were discussed in detail.     

Optimization of sodium carbonate texturization on large-area crystalline silicon solar cells

This work describes a texturization method for monocrystalline silicon solar cells based on a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium hydrogen carbonate solutions. A specific solution has been found that results in an optimal etching rate, the lowest surface reflectance and a homogeneous density of pyramidal structures on the silicon surface. The subsequent phosphorus diffusion with rapid thermal processes has been modified in order to drastically reduce the process time and, simultaneously, to obtain a high homogeneity of the sheet resistance values and improved photocarriers lifetimes. 100×100 mm solar cells with an efficiency of 15.8% have been obtained compared to an efficiency of 14.7% for the reference cell.     

Low-cost texturization of large-area crystalline silicon solar cells using hydrazine mono-hydrate for industrial use

Reduction in optical losses in mono-crystalline silicon solar cells by surface texturing is one of the important issues of modern silicon photovoltaics. In order to achieve good uniformity in pyramidal structures on the silicon surface, a mixture of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or potassium hydroxide (KOH) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is generally used during texturization of mono-crystalline silicon solar cell. However, due to the high cost of IPA, there is always a search for alternate chemical which plays the same role as IPA during texturization for industrial solar cell production. For a better texturization, the interfacial energy between silicon and ionized electrolyte of chemical solution should be reduced to achieve sufficient wettability of the silicon surface, which will enhance the pyramid nucleation. In this work, we have investigated the role of hydrazine mono-hydrate as a surface-active additive, which supplies OH⁻ ions after its dissociation. Our process cuts down the IPA consumption during texturing without any loss in uniformity of textured pyramids. We are the first to report the novel idea to add hydrazine mono-hydrate in NaOH solution for texturing mono-crystalline silicon surface to fabricate solar cells with more than 85% yield in the efficiency range of 14.5–15.3%.     

Role of hydrazine monohydrate during texturization of large-area crystalline silicon solar cell fabrication

Reduction of optical losses in monocrystalline silicon solar cells by surface texturing is one of the important issues of modern silicon photovoltaic. For texturization during commercial monocrystalline silicon solar cell fabrication, a mixture of NaOH or KOH and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is generally used in order to achieve good uniformity of pyramidal structure on the silicon surface. The interfacial energy between silicon and electrolyte should be reduced in order to achieve sufficient wettability for the silicon surface which in turn will enhance the pyramid nucleation. In this work, we have investigated the role of hydrazine monohydrate as a surface-active additive, which supplies OH⁻ ions after dissociation. This cuts down the IPA consumption during texturing without any loss of uniformity of textured pyramid. We are probably the first group to report such a novel idea of using hydrazine monohydrate addition in NaOH solution for texturization of solar cell. We were able to fabricate monocrystalline silicon solar cells with more than 85% yield in the range of 14–15% efficiency.     

Efficiency improved by acid texturization for multi-crystalline silicon solar cells

In this paper, we will show that efficiency of multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells may be improved by acid texturization. In order to enhance overall efficiency of mc-Si for solar-cell applications, the surface treatment of texturization with wet etching using appropriate solutions can improve incident light into the cell. Alkali etchant cannot produce uniformly textured surface to generate enough open circuit voltage (V_OC) and high efficiency of the mc-Si due to the unavoidable grain randomly oriented with higher steps formed during etching process. Optimized acid etching conditions can be obtained by decreasing the reflectance (R) for mc-Si substrate below levels generated by alkali etching. Short-circuit current (I_SC) measurements on acid textured cells reveal that current gain can be significantly enhanced by reducing reflection. The optimal acid etching ratio HF:HNO₃:H₂O = 15:1:2.5 with etching time of 60 s and lowering 42.7% of the R value can improve 112.4% of the conversion efficiency (η) of the developed solar cell. In order to obtain more detailed information of different defect region, high-resolution light beam induced current (LBIC) is applied to measure the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and the lifetime of minority carriers. Thus, the acid texturing approach is instrumental to achieve high efficiency in mass production using relatively low-cost mc-Si as starting material with proper optimization of the fabrication steps.     

A novel low cost texturization method for large area commercial mono-crystalline silicon solar cells

Texturization of mono-crystalline silicon for solar cell fabrication is still a key issue due to consumption of large amount of costly isopropyl alcohol (IPA) in conventional NaOH/KOH solution. The need of IPA arises due to the improvement in the uniformity of pyramidal structures and elimination of spots caused by bubbles sticking on the wafer surface during the texturization process. We investigated a new texturization technique for mono-crystalline silicon solar cells with tribasic sodium phosphate (Na₃PO₄, 12H₂O) solution with much less amount of IPA. The proposed texturization method of this paper is cost effective due to reduction in the consumption of expensive IPA. The cost comparison of our novel texturization approach with conventional NaOH texturization has also been reported in this paper. We are reporting for the first time such a novel approach of using tribasic sodium phosphate for texturization of mono-crystalline silicon surface with which solar cells of efficiency 14–14.8% are fabricated with more than 90% yield.     

Texturization of monocrystalline silicon with tribasic sodium phosphate

Tribasic sodium phosphate (Na₃PO₄·12H₂O) was successfully introduced to texture monocrystalline silicon for the first time. A series of comparative experiments were made to indicate the dependence of hemispherical surface reflectance on the tribasic sodium phosphate (Na₃PO₄·12H₂O) concentration, reaction temperature and etching time. Meanwhile, the effects of other agents, such as isopropyl alcohol (IPA), sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and bi-sodium hydrogen phosphate (Na₂HPO₄) on average reflectance were also investigated. The results showed that IPA and NaOH have great detrimental effects on texture, and the average reflectance slightly increased with the addition of Na₂HPO₄. On the basis of our experiments, it is concluded that the effect of phosphatidate (PO₄³⁻) or its compounds on the texturization is the same as that of the mixture of alkaline and IPA. Furthermore, this method is economical, has low pollution and good reproducibility. We feel that it is suitable for the large-scale production.     

Honeycomb-textured structures on crystalline silicon surfaces for solar cells by spontaneous dry etching with chlorine trifluoride gas

Reflection loss of silicon solar cells can be reduced by texturization of the surfaces. In this study, single- and multi-crystalline silicon substrates were treated with chlorine trifluoride (ClF₃) to create honeycomb-textured structures. We investigated surface structures and optical properties of the textured surfaces. By the treatment with ClF₃ gas, the reflectance of the textured surface without anti-reflection coating was obtained to be below 20% at wavelengths between 300 and 800 nm. The solar cells using the textured substrates were fabricated and their improved performances were demonstrated.     

Reactive ion etching (RIE) technique for application in crystalline silicon solar cells

Saw damage removal (SDR) and texturing by conventional wet chemical processes with alkali solution etch about 20 micron of silicon wafer on both sides, resulting in thin wafers with which solar cell processing is difficult. Reactive ion etching (RIE) for silicon surface texturing is very effective in reducing surface reflectance of thin crystalline silicon wafers by trapping the light of longer wavelength. High efficiency solar cells were fabricated during this study using optimized RIE. Saw damage removal (SDR) with acidic mixture followed by RIE-texturing showed the decrease in silicon loss by ∼67% and ∼70% compared to conventional SDR and texturing by alkaline solution. Also, the crystalline silicon solar cells fabricated by using RIE-texturing showed conversion efficiency as high as 16.7% and 16.1% compared with 16.2%, which was obtained in the case of the cell fabricated with SDR and texturing with NaOH solution.     

Latest results on semitransparent POWER silicon solar cells

The paper presents the latest results of the polycrystalline wafer engineering result (POWER) silicon solar cell research (G. Willeke, P. Fath, The POWER silicon solar cell, Proceedings of the 12th EPVSEC, Amsterdam, 1994, pp. 766–768). Mono – as well as bifacially active semitransparent silicon solar cells have been created by forming perpendicularly overlapping grooves on the front and the rear side of a silicon wafer resulting in a regular pattern of holes. The developed very simple manufacturing process is fully compatible with an industrial production and uses POCl₃-tube diffusion, PECVD silicon nitride as single ARC and screen-printing metallization. Maximum efficiencies of η=11.2% for monofacial POWER cells on 0.4 Ω cm Cz material with a transparency of 18.2% and η=12.9% for bifacial cells on 1 Ω cm Cz material with a transparency of 16% have been obtained. Results for multicrystalline (mc) semitransparent mono- and bifacially active silicon solar cells are also presented.     

Novel low-cost approach for removal of surface contamination before texturization of commercial monocrystalline silicon solar cells

This paper reports a novel approach on the surface treatment of monocrystalline silicon solar cells using an inorganic chemical, sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) that has some remarkable properties. The treatment of contaminated crystalline silicon wafer with hot NaOCl helps the removal of organic contaminants due to its oxidizing properties. The objective of this paper is to establish the effectiveness of this treatment using hot NaOCl solution before the saw damage removal step of the conventional NaOH texturing approach. A comparative study of surface morphology and FTIR analyses of textured monocrystalline silicon surfaces with and without NaOCl pre-treatment is also reported. The process could result in a significant low cost approach viable for cleaning silicon wafers on a mass production scale.     

Optimization of front surface texturing processes for high-efficiency silicon solar cells

This paper presents the results of an experimental study regarding the increase in the efficiency of the silicon solar cells by texturing the front surface. Designing, patterning and surface etching processes led to refined structures with very low losses of the incident optical radiation. Photolithography has been used to generate patterns (disc hole) through the silicon dioxide layer grown at the beginning on silicon wafers. The holes (4 μm in diameter) have been uniformly distributed on the entire surface (2×2) cm² and the distance between the hole centres was determined to be 20 μm. Semispherical walls have been defined in holes by isotropic etching up to join together of the wells.     

Thin crystalline silicon solar cells

A 50 μm thin layer of high quality crystalline silicon together with efficient light trapping and well passivated surfaces is in principle all that is required to achieve stable solar cell efficiencies in the 20% range. In the present work, we propose to obtain these layers by directly cutting 50 μm thin wafers from an ingot with novel cutting techniques. This development is discussed in the frame of a defect tolerant mass production scenario and aims at obtaining twice the amount of wafers as compared to present wire/slurry technology. The ability to process such mechanically flexible wafers into solar cells with standard laboratory equipment is experimentally verified.     

The effect of rear surface polishing to the performance of thin crystalline silicon solar cells

As the thickness of crystalline silicon solar cells decreases, light loss cannot be avoided due to the absorption limit in long wavelength light. Internal rear side reflection can be enhanced by polishing the rear surface. The rear polishing processes are performed before the texturing and before and after doping the emitter layer to optimize the solar cell fabrication process sequences. All cells made by rear surface polishing showed improved light trapping in long wavelength region (900-1100 nm) compared to that in the conventional cells. However, silicon solar cells fabricated by rear polishing before and after doping have similar (35.5 mA/cm²) or lower (35.26 mA/cm²) short circuit current density compared to the cells produced by the conventional process (35.59 mA/cm²) due to pore damage to the anti-reflection layer and the surface of the emitter layer during rear polishing. This surface damage was effectively prevented adapting the rear surface polishing before the front surface texturing, which led to increasing the current density from 35.59 to 36.29 mA/cm².     

Substrates for thin crystalline silicon solar cells

Choice of substrate for thin crystalline silicon solar cells requires a compromise between cost and quality. There are three generic substrate types, namely a transparent substrate (such as glass), an opaque substrate (such as a ceramic or metal) and low-cost multicrystalline silicon. Glass has the advantage of eliminating absorption within the substrate. However, the larger effective diffusion length, the improved surface passivation and the increased process flexibility obtainable with an opaque substrate, particularly low-cost multicrystalline silicon, may considerably outweigh the modest optical benefits of a transparent substrate. In this paper it is shown that the advantage in effective diffusion length that is required of a cell grown on an opaque substrate in order to offset the light-trapping advantages of a glass substrate is about a factor of two.     

Black silicon layer formation for application in solar cells

Low-cost, large area, random and mask less texturing scheme independent of crystal orientation are some of the factors that significantly influence the success of terrestrial photovoltaic technology. This work is focused on the texturing of the silicon surface microstructures by reactive ion etching using a multi-hollow cathode system. Desirable texturing effect has been achieved by applying a radio-frequency power of about 20 W per hollow cathode glow. The etched silicon surface shows almost zero reflectance in the visible region as well as in near-IR region. The silicon surface is covered by columnar microstructures with diameters ranging from 50 to 100 nm and with a depth of about 500 nm. Solar cells with efficiencies of 11.7% and 10.2% with black mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline silicon wafers, respectively, were successfully fabricated and tested.     

Selective emitter using porous silicon for crystalline silicon solar cells

This study is devoted to the formation of high–low-level-doped selective emitter for crystalline silicon solar cells for photovoltaic application. We report here the formation of porous silicon under chemical reaction condition. The chemical mixture containing hydrofluoric and nitric acid, with de-ionized water, was used to make porous on the half of the silicon surface of size 125×125 cm. Porous and non-porous areas each share half of the whole silicon surface. H₃PO₄:methanol gives the best deposited layer with acceptable adherence and uniformity on the non-porous and porous areas of the silicon surface to get high- and low-level-doped regions. The volume concentration of H₃PO₄ does not exceed 10% of the total volume emulsion. Phosphoric acid was used as an n-type doping source to make emitter for silicon solar cells. The measured emitter sheet resistances at the high- and low-level-doped regions were 30–35 and 97–474 Ω/□ respectively. A simple process for low- and high-level doping has been achieved by forming porous and porous-free silicon surface, in this study, which could be applied for solar cells selective emitter doping.     

A novel method to produce black silicon for solar cells

In the present study, the black silicon has been successfully produced by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII). The microstructure and the reflectance of the black silicon have been investigated by field emission scanning electron microscope and spectrophotometer, respectively. Results show that the black silicon exhibits a needle-like structure with the average reflectance of 1.79%. The solar cell based on black silicon yields an efficiency of 15.68% with a fill factor (FF) of 0.783.     

Amorphous silicon/p-type crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

We have investigated the photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of both glow discharge deposited hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) on crystalline silicon (c-Si) in a n⁺ a-Si:H/undoped a-Si:H/p c-Si type structure, and DC magnetron sputtered a-Si:H in a n-type a-Si:H/p c-Si type solar cell structure. It was found that the PV properties of the solar cells were influenced very strongly by the a-Si/c-Si interface. Properties of strongly interface limited devices were found to be independent of a-Si thickness and c-Si resistivity. A hydrofluoric acid passivation prior to RF glow discharge deposition of a-Si:H increases the short circuit current density from 2.57 to 25.00 mA/cm² under 1 sun conditions.DC magnetron sputtering of a-Si:H in a Ar/H₂ ambient was found to be a controlled way of depositing n type a-Si:H layers on c-Si for solar cells and also a tool to study the PV response with a-Si/c-Si interface variations. 300 Å a-Si sputtered onto 1–10 ω cm p-type c-Si resulted in 10.6% efficient solar cells, without an A/R coating, with an open circuit voltage of 0.55 V and a short circuit current density of 30 mA/cm² over a 0.3 cm² area. High frequency capacitance-voltage measurements indicate good junction characteristics with zero bias depletion width in c-Si of 0.65 μm. The properties of the devices have been investigated over a wide range of variables like substrate resistivity, a-Si thickness, and sputtering power. The processing has focused on identifying and studying the conditions that result in an improved a-Si/c-Si interface that leads to better PV properties.