• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.121-125
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• 2011

Ribbon silicon solar cells have been investigated because they can be produced with a lower material cost. However, it is very difficult to get good texturing with a conventional acid solution. To achieve high efficiency should be minimized for the reflectance properties. In this paper, acid vapor texturing and anti-reflection coating of $SiN_x$ was applied for EFG Ribbon Si Wafer. P-type ribbon silicon wafer had a thickness of 200 ${\mu}m$ and a resistivity of 3 $\Omega-cm$. Ribbon silicon wafers were exposed in an acid vapor. Acid vapor texturing was made by reaction between the silicon and the mixed solution of HF : $HNO_3$. After acid vapor texturing process, nanostructure of less than size of 1 ${\mu}m$ was formed and surface reflectance of 6.44% was achieved. Reflectance was decreased to 2.37% with anti-reflection coating of $SiN_x$.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2013

Lowering surface reflectance of Si wafers by texturization is one of the most important processes for improving the efficiency of Si solar cells. This paper presents the results on the effect of texturing using acidic solution mixtures containing the catalytic agents to moderate etching rates on the surface morphology of mc-Si wafer as well as on the performance parameters of solar cell. It was found that the treatment of contaminated crystalline silicon wafer with $HNO_3-H_2O_2-H_2O$ solution before the texturing helps the removal of organic contaminants due to its oxidizing properties and thereby allows the formation of nucleation centers for texturing. This treatment combined with the use of a catalytic agent such as phosphoric acid improved the effects of the texturing effects. This reduced the reflectance of the surface, thereby increased the short circuit current and the conversion efficiency of the solar cell. Employing this technique, we were able to fabricate mc-Si solar cell of 16.4% conversion efficiency with anti-reflective (AR) coating of silicon nitride film using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and Si wafers can be texturized in a short time.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.280-284
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• 2004

Multicrystalline silicon wafers were textured in an alkaline bath, basically using sodium hydroxide and in acidic bath, using mainly hydrofluoric acid (HF), nitric acid $(HNO_3)$ and de-ionized water (DIW). Some wafers were also acid polished for the comparative study. Comparison of average reflectance of the samples treated with the new recipe of acidic solution showed average diffuse reflectance less than even 5 percent in the optimized condition. Solar cells were thus fabricated with the samples following the main steps such as phosphorus doping for emitter layer formation, silicon nitride deposition for anti-reflection coating by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and front surface passivation, screen printing metallization, co-firing in rapid thermal processing (RTP) Furnace and laser edge isolation and confirmed >14 % conversion efficiency from the best textured samples. This isotropic texturing approach can be instrumental to achieve high efficiency in mass production using relatively low cost silicon wafers as starting material.