Oxide passivated low reflection nano-structured solar cell

The main processes in conventional silicon solar cell manufacturing are surface cleaning, saw damage removal, and texturing. These steps require excessive water and chemical usage. In addition 10% of the wafers are wasted through etching. These steps are followed by surface passivation and reflection reduction through expensive and inflammable, toxic-gas based plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process for deposition of high index anti-reflection SiN films. Surface reflection measurements from these surfaces have been carried out was comparable or 1% lower than SiN-coated surfaces and eliminating the need for deposition of high index SiN films. Si nanostructure passivation has been achieved with an oxide film grown as part of the POCl3 emitter process. These innovations have significantly reduced water and chemical usage, and have also eliminated expensive, silane-based plasma processing without restructuring the existing industrial manufacturing process.