Liquid-Phase-Deposited Silicon Oxide Film as a Mask for Single-Sided Texturing of Monocrystalline Si Wafers

A silicon oxide film doped with fluorine was grown on a (100)-oriented Si wafer through liquid-phase deposition (LPD) as a protective mask of the wafer's rear side in order to chemically texture the wafer's unprotected front side in a basic etching bath, which is a new process in solar-cell manufacturing. The growth rate of the LPD-SiO2 film increased monotonically with an increase of the deposition temperature up to 60 °C for a given precursor solution. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) indicates that a pyramidal surface texture forms on the front side in the chemical texturing bath, whereas the underlying Si surface on the rear side remains intact. As a result, the average reflectivity for incident light over 450-850 nm is decreased to 11.1% on the front side, and a 5.8 μm thick Si surface on the rear side is saved per wafer. The all-wet process involved in this single-sided texturing is promising for the mass production of thinner and higher-efficiency Si-based solar cells because of its simplicity and lower cost.