Effect of Microstructures With Different Depth-to-Width Ratios on Surface Reflectance and Si Solar Cell Performance

Metal-catalyzed chemical etching (MCCE) is an effective method for making texture surface on diamond wire saw (DWS) cut mc-Si wafer. In this work, microstructures with different depth-to-width ratios were obtained by MCCE on the surface of DWS cut mc-Si wafers. Simultaneously, the influence of etching time and the concentration of AgNO ₃ on etching depth, surface reflectance performance, and effect of reaming on the solar cell performance were studied. In total, 12 microstructures with different depth-to-width ratios ranging from 0.63 to 5.31 were prepared. The etching rate increased with the increase in concentration of AgNO ₃ and etching time. Moreover, the depth-to-width ratio significantly affected the reflectivity of silicon wafers. The relationship between them can be expressed by the fitting exponential function: y = 12.41 × x ^-0.733 . The reflectivity obtained in the experiment ranged from 3.71% to 18.15%. After reaming, the performance of the mc-Si solar cells has been significantly improved, and η could reach up to 18.53%.