Surface texturing for silicon solar cells using reactive ion etching technique

Surface texturing is an effective and more lasting technique in reducing reflections and improving light trapping compared to antireflection coatings. A surface texturing technique using reactive ion etching (RIE) method suitable for crystalline and multi crystalline solar cells, which resulted in surfaces with negligible reflection in the visible band is described. Different texturing structures (pillars, holes and black silicon) have been studied and compared in the wavelength range from 250nm-2500nm. It is found that the reflectance of the textured column structures were less than 0.4% at wavelengths from 500 nm to 1000 nm and showed a minimum of 0.29% at 1000 nm while the reflectivity from black silicon is around 1% and hole structures is around 6.8% in the same wavelength range.