Pre-texturing thermal treatment for saw-damage-removal-free wet texturing of monocrystalline silicon wafers

Yujin Jung, Kwanhong Min, Soohyun Bae, Myeongseob Sim, Yoon Mook Kang, Haeseok Lee, Donghwan Kim

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The etching of Si wafers significantly influences the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. Texturing can effectively decrease front surface reflection and improve device performance. Saw damage removal (SDR) is necessary to yields uniform random pyramidal surfaces without the appearance of saw marks, it entails significant consumption of chemical solutions and complicated cleaning steps. Herein, an alternative process of pre-texturing thermal treatment was carried out at 800 °C for 10 min, followed by anisotropic texturing, and a uniform pyramidal surface over a large area of the textured surface was obtained without saw marks. Compared with that of as-cut mono-Si wafers (30.7%), the weighted average reflectance of the samples textured with or without thermal treatment decreased to 11.2% and 11.9%, respectively, and further to 3% and 3.4%, respectively, when anti-reflection coatings were applied. In addition, saw marks on the wafer surface were used as gettering sites during thermal treatment, and the bulk lifetime was more than doubled from 42.6 µs before the treatment to 93.8 µs after. The simple, SDR-free method presented herein for enhancing the textural uniformity of Si wafers and, hence, solar cell performance, can be employed on an industrial scale without necessitating additional investment in equipment.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number6610
    JournalEnergies
    Volume13
    Issue number24
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020 Dec 2

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    Funding: This work was supported by the New & Renewable Energy Core Technology Program and Human Resources Program in Energy Technology of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP), and granted financial resources by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea (Nos. 20193091010240 and 20204010600470). This work was also supported by the KU-KIST Graduate School Project.

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Keywords

    • Alkaline etching
    • Anisotropic etching
    • Diamond wire-sawn mono-silicon wafer
    • Monocrystalline Si texturing
    • Saw damage gettering
    • Silicon texturing
    • Texturing
    • Thermal treatment

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
    • Fuel Technology
    • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
    • Energy (miscellaneous)
    • Control and Optimization
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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