High-performance texturization of multicrystalline silicon wafer by HF/HNO3/H2O system incorporated with MnO2 particles

Abstract Manganese dioxide (MnO2) particles were incorporated into the traditional wet acid etching (HF/HNO3/H2O) system to improve the texturization performance of multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) wafers. Low surface reflectance (R) was obtained on both the slurry wire sawn (SWS) mc-Si and the diamond wire sawn (DWS) mc-Si. By studying the effects of the MnO2 usage amount and the reaction time on the average thickness reduction, the texture morphology and R of the textured mc-Si wafer, the etching mechanism was revealed. Via optimizing the etching condition preliminarily, a low weighted average surface reflectance (Ra) for the AM1.5G sun spectrum in the wavelength range of 380–1100 nm was achieved as about 23% on SWS mc-Si and about 25% on DWS mc-Si.