Abstract
Crystalline solar cells have attracted significant attention in the solar-cell market owing to their low material cost. Multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) is usually fabricated using the casting method, and approximately 35% of Si is removed as kerf in the sawing process performed to fabricate the wafer. The fabrication of kerfless mc-Si wafers does not involve the sawing and growing process. Hence, there is a significant reduction in the process cost (∼50%), while saving ∼66% energy in wafer manufacturing. Moreover, the absence of sawing process will result in no surface damage and smoother surfaces. Texturing using conventional methods such as acidic chemical etching are ineffective and as a result, the desired surface texture cannot be obtained. To solve this problem, the texture can be created using relatively expensive and complicated processes such as reactive-ion etching or metal-catalyzed chemical etching, which are not affected by the shape of the wafer surface. This article proposes a method for creating an effective texture that can increase the light absorptivity of mc-Si wafers manufactured by the kerfless method with no surface damage. This technology is a cost-effective and reliable process that uses an acidic chemical solution with no additive or mask. The etching rate and texture shape are investigated for different solution ratios of HF and HNO3. The surface morphology is examined using scanning electron microscopy, and the reflectance at 300-1200 nm is measured using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. A weighted average reflectance of ∼20.0% is obtained, which reduces to ∼7.4% on depositing an antireflective film.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 8970517 |
Pages (from-to) | 431-437 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 Mar |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Manuscript received November 29, 2019; revised December 25, 2019; accepted December 28, 2019. Date of publication January 27, 2020; date of current version February 19, 2020. This work was supported in part by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea under Grant 20173010012970 and Grant 20163010012430, and in part by the “Human Resources Program in Energy Technology” of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP), with financial support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea under Grant 20154030200760. (Yujin Jung and Soohyun Bae contributed equally to this work.) (Corresponding authors: Yoonmook Kang; Donghwan Kim.) Y. Jung and S. Bae are with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, South Korea (e-mail: yujin0906@korea.ac.kr; ramun16@korea.ac.kr).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 IEEE.
Keywords
- Acidic texturing
- additive-free texturing
- kerfless silicon texturing
- kerfless wafer
- multicrystalline texturing
- silicon texturing
- solar cell
- solar cell texturing
- surface texture
- surface treatment
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering