Conventionally-processed silicon nanowire solar cells demonstrating efficiency improvement over standard cells

We fabricate silicon nanowire solar cells which, other than the texturing step, are processed by conventional silicon solar cell manufacturing equipment. The nanowires reduce reflection compared to standard multicrystalline cells, leading to higher short-circuit current. A less anticipated benefit is that the nanowires can also increase open-circuit voltage and fill factor. Compared to standard multicrystalline cells processed at the same time, our nanowire cells demonstrate a 0.4% efficiency improvement when only changing the texturing step and a 0.6% efficiency improvement when also adjusting the diffusion step. Our highest nanowire cell efficiency is 18.0% on a multicrystalline wafer, and 19.0% on a monocrystalline wafer.