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Recent investigations on the fabrication of ultrathin silicon (Si) wafers using wire-electric discharge machining (wire-EDM) were observed to possess some inherent limitations. These include thermal damage (TD), kerf-loss (KL), and low slicing rate (SR), which constraints its industrial use. The extent of TD, KL, and SR largely depends on the process parameters such as open voltage (OV), servovoltage (SV), and pulse on-time (Ton). Therefore, optimizing the parameters that pertain to minimum TD and KL while maintaining a higher SR is the key to improvement in the fabrication of Si wafers using wire-EDM. Thus, this study is an effort to analyze and identify the optimal parameters that relate to the most effective Si slicing in wire-EDM. A central composite design (CCD)-based response surface methodology (RSM) was used for optimizing the process parameters. The capability to slice Si wafers in wire-EDM was observed to be influenced by the discharge energy, which significantly impacted the overall responses. The severities of TDs were observed to be mainly dominated by the variation in OV and Ton due to the diffusion of thermal energy into the workpiece, leading to melting and subsequent resolidification. For high productivity, the optimized parameters resulted in a SR of 0.72 mm/min, TD of 17.44 μm, and a kerf-loss of about 280 μm.

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In this work, a nanosecond green laser (532 nm) is used to generate narrow openings by removing an ultra-thin (85 nm) SiN x layer that is coated on a silicon substrate for application in the fabrication of Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact (PERC) solar cells. An experimental analysis is presented to identify the optimal range of laser parameters for an efficient ablation with minimal damage to the silicon substrate. The ablated samples were characterized using a 3D profilometer to obtain the surface profiles and scanning electron microscope imaging to observe the surface quality. Further, energy-dispersive X-ray line analysis and atom probe tomography were performed to evaluate the nitrogen content on the surface and along the depth, respectively. The experimental results suggest that the SiN x layer starts to ablate only above a threshold laser fluence of 1.4 J/cm2, while the surface bulged out for laser fluence slightly below the ablation threshold. The central part of the ablated region was clean with a negligible nitrogen concentration at the surface, about ∼0.03% at a fluence of 2.4 J/cm2. Nitrogen concentration reduces continuously and almost becomes zero at 80 nm depth, suggesting complete ablation of the SiN x layer for establishing electrical contacts. The ablation width was close to the laser spot diameter only at lower values of the laser fluence. The lowest value of ablation depth was about 180 nm, suggesting that only about 95 nm layer of the silicon is ablated. The study demonstrates that nanosecond laser ablation is a potential technique for ablation of the SiN x layer of PERC solar cells but requires choosing the optimal parameters.

Recent investigations on the fabrication of ultra-thin silicon (Si) wafers using wire-electrical discharge machining (wire-EDM) were observed to possess some inherent limitations. This includes severe thermal damage, kerf-loss, and low slicing rate, which could be detrimental towards realizing actual practical applications. The extent of thermal damage, kerf-loss, and slicing rate largely depends on the process parameters such as open voltage (OV), servo voltage (SV), and pulse on-time (Ton). Therefore, choosing the optimal parameters that pertain to minimum thermal damage and kerf-loss while maintaining a higher slicing rate is the key to further excel in the fabrication of Si wafers using wire-EDM. Therefore, the present study is an effort to analyze and identify the optimal parameters that relate to the most effective Si slicing in wire-EDM. A central composite design (CCD) based response surface methodology (RSM) was used for optimizing the process parameters. The capability to slice Si wafers in wire-EDM was observed to be highly influenced by the discharge energy, which had a positive impact on the overall responses. The severity of thermal damages was observed to be mainly dominated by the variation in open voltage and Ton due to the high diffusion of thermal energy into the workpiece, which led to intense melting and subsequent re-solidification. The parametric optimization resulted in OV = 84.32 V, SV = 42.98 V and Ton = 0.62 μs as the most feasible parameter that relates to comparatively high slicing rate (0.65 mm/min), low kerf-loss (280 μm) and thermal damage (18 μm) for a given machine. In general, with a decrease in spark energy slicing rate and thermal damage decreases whereas, kerf-loss increases. When spark energy decreases by 83%, there is a nearly 55% decrease in slicing rate and thermal damage and a 10% increase in kerf-loss.