High efficiency multi-crystalline silicon solar cell with inverted pyramid nanostructure

• Published in: Solar energy 2017-01, Vol.142, p.91-96
• Main Authors: Jiang, Ye, Shen, Honglie, Pu, Tian, Zheng, Chaofan, Tang, Quntao, Gao, Kai, Wu, Jing, Rui, Chunbao, Li, Yufang, Liu, Youwen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Inverted pyramid; mc-Si solar cell; Metal assisted chemical etching; Nanostructure rebuilding
• ISSN: 0038-092X; 1471-1257
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2016.12.007

•18.62% large area mc-Si solar cell with inverted pyramid structure was obtained.•Dimensions of inverted pyramids controlled by the acid treatment time.•500nm inverted pyramid structure exhibited ideal solar cell performance.•A low-cost MACE and nano-rebuild process was proposed. In this paper, we report inverted pyramidal nanostructure based multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells with a high conversion efficiency of 18.62% in large size of 156×156mm2 wafers. The nanostructures were fabricated by metal assisted chemical etching process followed by a post nano structure rebuilding (NSR) solution treatment. With increasing NSR treatment time, the reflectance and the dimensions of micro oval pits were both influenced. Resulting from both the light trapping ability and passivation efficiency, 500nm inverted pyramid structure exhibited an ideal solar cell performance. The best solar cell showed a low reflectivity of 3.29% and a 0.91mAcm−2 increase of short-circuit current density, and its efficiency was 0.45% higher than the acid textured solar cell. This technique presented a great potential to be a standard process for producing highly efficient mc-Si solar cells in the future.