Sunday, 22 December 2013

Solar Cell Texturing - An Important Industry Process

By Roy van Rivero


A number of industries are using alternative energy not just to harness natural energy sources but, of equal importance, to use it to its optimum potential in order to promote sustainable development for human society. However, up to these days, industry innovators continue to face the challenge of refining their processes so that they are able to use them in the most efficient ways.

In the sector of semiconductor, one important process that has been developed for the industry to use is solar cell texturing. In simple terms, it is a process of 'roughening' of the surface of the silicon substrate to minimize reflection. With textured substrate, reflection is reduced by increasing the chances of reflected light bouncing back onto the surface - instead of letting it bounce back to the surrounding air.

Here are some benefits of solar cell texturing

Efficiency - textured solar cell can generate more energy since there is less that is reflected out into the environment; thus, it is far more efficient than flat silicon substrate.

Lower cost - this is one of the prime considerations by pv manufacturing equipment manufacturers as they continue to engineer products designed to produce textured solar cells; they continue to develop equipment that can reduce cost while efficiency is not compromised.

Environment-friendly - another benefit of solar cell texturing is that it is a process that promotes environmental protection; it plays an important role in achieving a sustainable development. Environment-friendly processes should be integrated to companies' systems.

Types of solar cell texturing

Single crystalline substrate - this type is done by etching along the faces of the crystal planes. The crystalline structure will produce a resulting surface that is made up of pyramids when aligned appropriately with respect to the internal atoms.

Inverted pyramid - with this type, the pyramids are etched down into the silicon surface as opposed to the single crystalline substrate where the silicon substrates are etched pointing upwards from the surface.

Multi-crystalline substrate - this type can be done using a photolithograpic technique; it can also be processed by mechanically sculpting the front surface using dicing saws or laser to cut the surface into appropriate shape.




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