Pre-Texturing Thermal Treatment for Saw-Damage-Removal-Free Wet Texturing of Monocrystalline Silicon Wafers

Yujin Jung, Kwanhong Min, Soohyun Bae, Myeongseob Sim, Yoonmook Kang, Haeseok Lee and Donghwan Kim
Additional contact information
Yujin Jung: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
Kwanhong Min: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
Soohyun Bae: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
Myeongseob Sim: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
Yoonmook Kang: Department of Energy Environment Policy and Technology, Green School (Graduate School of Korea Energy and Environment), Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
Haeseok Lee: Department of Energy Environment Policy and Technology, Green School (Graduate School of Korea Energy and Environment), Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
Donghwan Kim: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-9

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.

Keywords: thermal treatment; texturing; monocrystalline Si texturing; diamond wire-sawn mono-silicon wafer; alkaline etching; anisotropic etching; silicon texturing; saw damage gettering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6610/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6610/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:24:p:6610-:d:462173

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().