Comparative study of different approaches of multicrystalline silicon texturing for solar cell fabrication

Alkali etchant cannot produce uniformly textured surface to generate satisfactory open circuit voltage as well as the efficiency of the multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cell due to the unavoidable grain boundary delineation with higher steps formed between successive grains of different orientations during alkali etching of mc-Si. Acid textured surface formed by using chemicals with HNO3–HF–CH3COOH combination generally helps to improve the open circuit voltage but always gives lower short circuit current due to high reflectivity. Texturing mc-Si surface without grain boundary delineation is the present key issue of mc-Si research. We report the isotropic texturing with HF–HNO3–H2O solution as an easy and reliable process for mc-Si texturing. Isotropic etching with acidic solution includes the formation of meso- and macro-porous structures on mc-Si that helps to minimize the grain-boundary delineation and also lowers the reflectivity of etched surface. The study of surface morphology and reflectivity of different mc-Si etched surfaces has been discussed in this paper. Using our best chemical recipe, we are able to fabricate mc-Si solar cell of ∼14% conversion efficiency with PECVD AR coating of silicon nitride film. The isotropic texturing approach can be instrumental to achieve high efficiency in mass production using relatively low-cost silicon wafers as starting material with the proper optimization of the fabrication steps.