Studies on non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma process conditions for groove formation on silicon nitride for silicon solar cells

Fabrications of narrow electrode grooves for front electrodes on single crystalline silicon solar cells were examined using surface discharges, in which the electrode grooves were formed by etching a silicon nitride (SiN) film on substrates. The surface discharge could effectively etch the SiN film within 10 s and that a high etching rate more than 1800 nm/min was obtained. An optimum ratio of Ar gas, which was enough to maintain the formation of innumerable surface streamers, was 2.3 times larger than that of etching gas, and a short-term etching with the high discharge voltage was effective to narrow groove width.