Ultrasonication pretreatment of diamond wire sawn multi-crystalline silicon wafers for texturing

Ultrasonication vibration as the pretreatment process, combined with wet acid etching, was utilized for the texture of diamond wire sawn (DWS) multi-crystalline silicon wafers. The SiC particles in the ultrasonic device were imposed for cavitation-generating blasting action on the DWS wafers surfaces. The blasting action exceeding 5 min can remove saw marks and smooth zones on the DWS wafer surfaces by producing new pits. After wet acid etching，the texture morphology of ultrasonically pretreated DWS mc-silicon wafers was quite uniform as compared to wet-textured as-cut DWS mc-silicon wafers, similar to wet-textured slurry wire saw(SWS) mc-silicon wafers. Light reflectivity tests confirmed the beneficial effect of the ultrasonic pretreatment of DWS mc-silicon wafers. This technique could be a potential solution to the texturization problem of DWS mc-silicon wafers.