New approach to isotropic texturing techniques on multicrystalline silicon wafers

Multicrystalline silicon wafers were isotropically textured using two kinds of modified acid texturing methods. One of the modifications is based on the introduction of the spray deposition method into the conventional acid etching of Si wafers. Silicon dioxide or photo-resist was sprayed on the Si wafers and used as masks for following acid etching process. The acid etching solution was modified with H2SO4 and various additives. Short circuit densities of the solar cells fabricated using those modified acid texturing were measured to be in the range between 30.8 and 31.4mA/cm(2), which were at least 1.6mA/cm(2) higher than those from alkaline textured solar cells. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.