Highly reproducible c-Si texturing by metal-free TMAH etchant and monoTEX agent

Wensheng Liang; Teng Kho; Jingnan Tong; Parvathala Narangari; Stephane Armand; Marco Ernst; Daniel Walter; Sachin Surve; Matthew Stocks; Andrew Blakers; Kean Chern Fong

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110909

Highly reproducible c-Si texturing by metal-free TMAH etchant and monoTEX agent

Wensheng Liang^*, Teng Kho, Jingnan Tong, Parvathala Narangari, Stephane Armand, Marco Ernst, Daniel Walter, Sachin Surve, Matthew Stocks, Andrew Blakers, Kean Chern Fong

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Surface texturing of a silicon solar cell is critical to provide surface antireflection and light trapping. The common texturing method based on KOH as an etchant with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as a wetting agent suffers two disadvantages: introducing metal contamination and low repeatability. To circumvent the limitation of the KOH-IPA method, we develop a new texturing regime by substituting TMAH for KOH, and a commercial surfactant RENA monoTEX for IPA. This TMAH-monoTEX method shows advantages of non-metal contamination, high reproducibility, short process time and small random pyramids. IBC solar cells fabricated with the TMAH-monoTEX texture achieved an efficiency of 25% with J_sc of 42.9 mA/cm², V_oc of 719 mV and FF of 81.1%.

Original language	English
Article number	110909
Journal	Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Volume	222
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110909
Publication status	Published - Apr 2021

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10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110909

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title = "Highly reproducible c-Si texturing by metal-free TMAH etchant and monoTEX agent",

abstract = "Surface texturing of a silicon solar cell is critical to provide surface antireflection and light trapping. The common texturing method based on KOH as an etchant with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as a wetting agent suffers two disadvantages: introducing metal contamination and low repeatability. To circumvent the limitation of the KOH-IPA method, we develop a new texturing regime by substituting TMAH for KOH, and a commercial surfactant RENA monoTEX for IPA. This TMAH-monoTEX method shows advantages of non-metal contamination, high reproducibility, short process time and small random pyramids. IBC solar cells fabricated with the TMAH-monoTEX texture achieved an efficiency of 25% with Jsc of 42.9 mA/cm2, Voc of 719 mV and FF of 81.1%.",

keywords = "Light trapping, Random pyramid, Solar cells, TMAH, Texturing, monoTEX",

author = "Wensheng Liang and Teng Kho and Jingnan Tong and Parvathala Narangari and Stephane Armand and Marco Ernst and Daniel Walter and Sachin Surve and Matthew Stocks and Andrew Blakers and Fong, {Kean Chern}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020",

year = "2021",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110909",

language = "English",

volume = "222",

journal = "Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Highly reproducible c-Si texturing by metal-free TMAH etchant and monoTEX agent

AU - Liang, Wensheng

AU - Kho, Teng

AU - Tong, Jingnan

AU - Narangari, Parvathala

AU - Armand, Stephane

AU - Ernst, Marco

AU - Walter, Daniel

AU - Surve, Sachin

AU - Stocks, Matthew

AU - Blakers, Andrew

AU - Fong, Kean Chern

PY - 2021/4

Y1 - 2021/4

N2 - Surface texturing of a silicon solar cell is critical to provide surface antireflection and light trapping. The common texturing method based on KOH as an etchant with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as a wetting agent suffers two disadvantages: introducing metal contamination and low repeatability. To circumvent the limitation of the KOH-IPA method, we develop a new texturing regime by substituting TMAH for KOH, and a commercial surfactant RENA monoTEX for IPA. This TMAH-monoTEX method shows advantages of non-metal contamination, high reproducibility, short process time and small random pyramids. IBC solar cells fabricated with the TMAH-monoTEX texture achieved an efficiency of 25% with Jsc of 42.9 mA/cm2, Voc of 719 mV and FF of 81.1%.

AB - Surface texturing of a silicon solar cell is critical to provide surface antireflection and light trapping. The common texturing method based on KOH as an etchant with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as a wetting agent suffers two disadvantages: introducing metal contamination and low repeatability. To circumvent the limitation of the KOH-IPA method, we develop a new texturing regime by substituting TMAH for KOH, and a commercial surfactant RENA monoTEX for IPA. This TMAH-monoTEX method shows advantages of non-metal contamination, high reproducibility, short process time and small random pyramids. IBC solar cells fabricated with the TMAH-monoTEX texture achieved an efficiency of 25% with Jsc of 42.9 mA/cm2, Voc of 719 mV and FF of 81.1%.

KW - Light trapping

KW - Random pyramid

KW - Solar cells

KW - TMAH

KW - Texturing

KW - monoTEX

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097790265&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110909

DO - 10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110909

M3 - Article

SN - 0927-0248

VL - 222

JO - Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

JF - Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

M1 - 110909

ER -

Highly reproducible c-Si texturing by metal-free TMAH etchant and monoTEX agent

Abstract

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