Two-Step Plasma-Texturing Process for Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells With Linear Microwave Plasma Sources

Surface texturing of crystalline silicon solar cells allows reduction of the reflection of sunlight and enhances photon generation. Plasma-based texturing offers significant advantages over the conventional wet approach, i.e., reduced Si consumption, thin wafer compatibility, increased throughput, and reduced chemical waste. However, it still suffers from insufficient electric yield, i.e., bad performance of plasma-processed solar cells. This paper describes advances made in plasma texturing by means of a linear microwave plasma source. The advantage of a two-step plasma-texturing process is demonstrated, leading to a smoother surface roughness, and resulting in an increased open-circuit voltage, together with a reduced processing time. In addition, the described technology allows a significant reduction of surface damage and could be implemented on a production line for crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturing.