Impact of Fe and Cu Surface Contamination on High Efficiency Solar Cell Processes

In wafer-based silicon solar cell technology cleaning of silicon surfaces has so far been treated without much interest – the cheapest, simple solution, which means mostly rinsing with or dipping into diluted acids (HCl, HF), was the best. Whatever worked was rarely further investigated. Hence, not much work has been published in the field of contamination control and cleaning process optimization and development. With solar cell efficiencies increasing and processes becoming more and more sensitive, the interest in quality control and optimization of cleaning processes is rising.