• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2006년도 추계학술대회 논문집 Vol.19
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• pp.19-20
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• 2006

Two methods that can reduce reflectance in solar cells are surface texturing and anti-reflection coating. Wet chemical etching is a typical method that surface texturing of multi-crystalline silicon. Wet chemical etching methods are the acid texturization of saw damage on the surface of multi-crystalline silicon or double-step chemical etching after KOH saw damage removal too. These methods of surface texturing are realized by chemical etching in acid solutions HF-$HNO_3$-$H_2O$. In this solutions we can reduce reflectance spectra by simple process etching of multi-crystalline silicon surface. We have obtained reflectance of 27.19% m 400~1100nm from acidic chemical etching after KOH saw damage removal. This result is about 7% less than just saw damage removal substrate. The surface morphology observed by microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

• 신재생에너지
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.26-31
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• 2009

The surface etching characteristics of single crystalline silicon wafer were investigated using potassium hydroxide (KOH) and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH). The saw damage layer was removed after 10min by KOH 45wt% solution at $80^{\circ}C$. The wafer etched at high temperature ($90^{\circ}C$) and in low concentration (4wt%) of TMAH solution showed an increased etch rate of silicon wafer and wavy patterns on the surface. Especially, pyramidal textures were formed in 4wt% TMAH solution without alcohol additives.

• 대한금속재료학회지
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• 제46권12호
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• pp.835-840
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• 2008

Texturing for crystalline silicon solar cells is one of the important techniques to increase conversion efficiency by effective photon trapping. Generally, incoming wafers or alkali etched wafers are used for texturing. From this conventional etching process, $7{\sim}10{\mu}m$-sized random pyramids are formed. In this study, acid etching for removal of saw damages was practiced before texturing. This improved the resulting surface morphology, which consisted of $2{\sim}4{\mu}m$-sized pyramids. Because these pyramids covered the surface much more extensively, we obtained reduction of optical losses on the surface. In order to compare with conventional texturing, FE-SEM is used for observing surface morphology and reflectance data is analyzed by UV-VIS spectrophotometer.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제20권11호
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• pp.617-622
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• 2010

We have studied methods to save Si source during the fabrication process of crystalline Si solar cells. One way is to use a thin silicon wafer substrate. As the thickness of the wafers is reduced, mechanical fractures of the substrate increase with the mechanical handling of the thin wafers. It is expected that the mechanical fractures lead to a dropping of yield in the solar cell process. In this study, the mechanical properties of 220-micrometer-solar grade Cz p-type monocrystalline Si wafers were investigated by varying saw-damage etching conditions in order to improve the flexural strength of ultra-thin monocrystalline Si solar cells. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution and tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution were used as etching solutions. Etching processes were operated with a varying of the ratio of KOH and TMAH solutions in different temperature conditions. After saw-damage etching, wafers were cleaned with a modified RCA cleaning method for ten minutes. Each sample was divided into 42 pieces using an automatic dicing saw machine. The surface morphologies were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and 3D optical microscopy. The thickness distribution was measured by micrometer. The strength distribution was measured with a 4-point-bending tester. As a result, TMAH solution at $90^{\circ}C$ showed the best performance for flexural strength.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.27-30
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• 2018

The dependency of the electrical characteristics of silicon solar-cells on the depth of damaged layer induced by wire-sawing process was investigated. To compare cell efficiency with residual sawing damage, silicon solar-cells were fabricated by using as-sawn wafers having different depth of saw damage without any damaged etching process. The damaged layer induced by wire-sawing process in silicon bulk intensely influenced the value of fill factor on solar cells, degrading fill factor to 57.20%. In addition, the photovoltaic characteristics of solar cells applying texturing process shows that although the initial depth of saw-damage induced by wire-sawing process was different, the value of short-circuit current, fill-factor, and power-conversion-efficiency have an almost same, showing ~17.4% of cell efficiency. It indicated that the degradation of solar-cell efficiency induced by wire-sawing process could be prevented by eliminating all damaged layer through sufficient pyramid-surface texturing process.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2013년도 제45회 하계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.139.2-139.2
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• 2013

6" Multi-crystal Silicon wafer has etched suing a remote - type RF Dielectric barrier discharge (RF DBD) at atmospheric pressure. DBD source is composed of Al electrode and coated Al2O3 dielectric as function of Ar/NF3 gas combination and input power used 13.56 MHz power supply. Ar gas flow rate is changed from 2 to 10 Slm, and NF3 flow rate is changed from 0.2~1 slm. At the result, NF3 flow rate Si etching rate also increase whit the increasing of NF3 flow rate But at 2 slm etching rate was decrease. In this experience, Max etching rate is 2.3 ${\mu}m/min$ when the scan time is 45 sec.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2010년도 추계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.41.2-41.2
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• 2010

최근 태양전지 제조비용 절감을 위해 초박형 실리콘 태양전지 개발이 활발히 이루어지고 있다. 이에 따라 후면전계(Back Surface Field, BSF) 특성에 대한 관심이 높아지는 추세이다. 이에 본 연구에서는 후면의 결정방향 및 표면구조에 따라 형성되는 후면전계(BSF)의 특성에 대해 알아보고자 하였다. 후면이 절삭손상층 식각(Saw damage etching) 후 (100)면이 드러난 실리콘 기판과 텍스쳐링(Texturing) 후 (111)면이 드러난 실리콘 기판에 후면 전극을 스크린 인쇄 후 Ramp up rate을 달리 하여 소성 공정(RTP system)을 통해 후면전계(BSF)를 형성하여 비교하였다. 후면전계(BSF)의 형상과 특성만을 평가하기 위하여 염산을 이용하여 후면 전극층을 제거하였다. 후면 전극 제거 후 주사전자현미경(Scanning Electron Microscopy)과 3차원 미세형상측정기(Non-contacting optical profiler)로 후면전계(BSF)의 형상을 비교하였다. 또한 후면전계(BSF)의 특성을 평가하고자 Quasi-Steady-State Photo Conductance(QSSPC)를 사용하여 포화전류(Saturation current, $J_0$)을 측정하였고, 면저항 측정기(4-point probe)로 면저항을 측정하여 비교하였다. 후면 전계(BSF)는 (100)면과 (111)면에서 모두 Ramp up rate이 빠를수록 향상된 특성을 보였고, (111)면에서 더 큰 차이를 보였다.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.29-35
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• 2014

In this study general solar cell production process was complemented, with research on improvement of solar cell efficiency through surface structure and thermal annealing process. Firstly, to form the pyramid structure, the saw damage removal (SDR) processed surface was undergone texturing process with reactive ion etching (RIE). Then, for the formation of smooth pyramid structure to facilitate uniform doping and electrode formation, the surface was etched with HND(HF : HNO3 : D.I. water=5 : 100 : 100) solution. Notably, due to uniform doping the leakage current decreased greatly. Also, for the enhancement and maintenance of minority carrier lifetime, antireflection coating thermal annealing was done. To maintain this increased lifetime, front electrode was formed through Au plating process without high temperature firing process. Through these changes in two processes, the leakage current effect could be decreased and furthermore, the conversion efficiency could be increased. Therefore, compared to the general solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 15.89%, production of high efficiency solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 17.24% was made possible.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2013년도 제45회 하계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.299.2-299.2
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• 2013

We investigated the potassium remaining on a crystalline silicon solar cell after potassium hydroxide (KOH) etching and its effect on the lifetime of the solar cell. KOH etching is generally used to remove the saw damage caused by cutting a Si ingot; it can also be used to etch the rear side of a textured crystalline silicon solar cell before atomic layer-deposited Al2O3 growth. However, the potassium remaining after KOH etching is known to be detrimental to the efficiency of Si solar cells. In this study, we etched a crystalline silicon solar cell in three ways in order to determine the effect of the potassium remnant on the efficiency of Si solar cells. After KOH etching, KOH and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) were used to etch the rear side of a crystalline silicon solar cell. To passivate the rear side, an Al2O3 layer was deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). After ALD Al2O3 growth on the KOH-etched Si surface, we measured the lifetime of the solar cell by quasi steady-state photoconductance (QSSPC, Sinton WCT-120) to analyze how effectively the Al2O3 layer passivated the interface of the Al2O3 layer and the Si surface. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) was also used to measure how much potassium remained on the surface of the Si wafer and at the interface of the Al2O3 layer and the Si surface after KOH etching and wet cleaning.

• 한국진공학회지
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.225-232
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• 2011

다결정 실리콘 태양전지 표면의 광흡수율을 극대화시키기 위하여 플라즈마기반의 reactive ion etching (RIE) 공정을 적용하였으며 maskless 표면 texturing조건을 최적화하여 310~1,100 nm 파장대역의 평균 표면반사율을 $4{\pm}1%$ 내외로 감소시킬 수 있는 grass-like 한 블랙실리콘을 제조할 수 있었다. Saw damage를 가진 $15.6{\times}15.6\;cm^2$ bare 웨이퍼에서부터 중요 공정단계별로 처리된 시료들의 평균반사율, 표면형상, 소수운반자 수명 등의 위치분포를 측정하여 최종 제작된 태양전지의 광전변환효율과 외부양자효율 등과 비교 검토하여 고효율 다결정 실리콘 태양전지 양산에 필요한 표면 texturing 조건들을 연구하였다. 평균 반사율을 4% 이하로 감소시키는 texturing 공정조건에서 웨이퍼 중앙에서 가장자리로 갈 수록 표면구조의 깊이 2배 반치폭 3배의 불균일성이 발생하였으며 이에 따라 입사광자의 다중반사확률이 높아져 평균반사율이 1% 정도 낮아지는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 비반사막이 코팅된 시료에서 측정된 소수운반자수명분포도 중앙에서 가장자리로 갈수록 약 40% 이상 더 긴 수명을 갖는 것으로 밝혀져 표면구조의 크기에 따른 사이즈효과가 발생하는 것으로 판단된다. 제조된 태양전지의 위치에 따른 광전변환효율도 낮은 반사율과 더 긴 소수운반자수명을 갖는 가장자리에서 2% 가량 높은 광전변환효율을 보였으며, 380~1,100nm 파장대역의 외부양자효율 측정결과도 이를 뒷받침하고 있다. 균일한 에미터 층 형성 및 ARC 증착에 있어서 구조적으로 가장자리 부분의 구조가 유리한 것으로 예상되며, 동시에 표면 구조의 사이즈 효과 때문에 표면 재결합확률이 중앙보다 가장자리에서 더 감소되어 더 높은 광전변환효율을 보이는 것으로 해석된다.