Effect of Various Wafer Surface Etching Processes on c-Si Solar Cell Characteristics

Jeong Eun Park, Chang-Soon Han, Won Seok Choi and Donggun Lim
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Jeong Eun Park: Department of Electronic Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation, Chungju 27909, Korea
Chang-Soon Han: Jeonnam Technopark, #370, Green-ro, Jeollanam-do 58324, Korea
Won Seok Choi: Department of IT Energy Convergence, Korea National University of Transportation, Chungju 27909, Korea
Donggun Lim: Department of Electronic Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation, Chungju 27909, Korea

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-19

Abstract: In order to analyze the effects of various sizes of pyramid structure on solar cell characteristics, a pyramid structure was formed on the wafer through various etching processes. In this paper, etching was performed using one-step etching processes such as alkaline solution etching, reactive ion etching (RIE), and metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE), and two-step etching processes such as alkaline solution + MACE and alkaline solution + RIE. The micro-sized pyramid-structured wafers formed using the alkali solution showed higher reflectivity than nano-sized pyramid-structured wafers. Accordingly, it was expected that the characteristics of the cells fabricated with a nano-sized pyramid-structured wafer having low reflectivity would be higher than that of a micro-sized pyramid-structured wafer. However, it was confirmed that the quantum efficiency characteristics in the short wavelength region were higher in the micro-sized pyramid-structured wafers than in the nano-sized pyramid-structured wafers. To confirm the reason for this, surface characteristics were analyzed through the deposition of an emitter layer on a wafer formed in a pyramidal structure. As a result, in the case of the nano-sized pyramid-structured wafer, the sheet resistance characteristics were lower due to the increased depth of the emitter layer in comparison to the micro-sized pyramid-structured wafer. Accordingly, it was determined that the quantum efficiency was degraded as a result of the high recombination rate.

Keywords: crystalline Silicon (c-Si) solar cell; surface etching; metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE); reactive ion etching (RIE); reflectance (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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