1. +90 312 210 50 90;2. Department of Micro and Nano Technology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey;3. Centre for Solar Energy Research and Applications, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey;4. Department of Physics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey;5. Nanoboyut Laboratory, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey
Abstract:
In this study, metal‐assisted etching (MAE) with nitric acid (HNO3) as a hole injecting agent has been employed to texture multi‐crystalline silicon wafers. It was previously proven that addition of HNO3 enabled control of surface texturing so as to form nano‐cone shaped structures rather than nanowires. The process parameters optimized for optically efficient texturing have been applied to multi‐crystalline wafers. Fabrication of p‐type Al:BSF cells have been carried out on textured samples with thermal SiO2/PECVD‐SiNx stack passivation and screen printed metallization. Firing process has been optimized in order to obtain the best contact formation. Finally, jsc enhancement of 0.9 mA/cm2 and 0.6% absolute increase in the efficiency have been achieved. This proves that the optimized MAE texture process can be successfully used in multi‐crystalline wafer texturing with standard passivation methods.