A new etching technique, which is useful for the formation of electrode grooves for finger and busber electrodes on solar cells, was examined using a surface discharge at atmospheric pressure. A silicon nitride film was etched along boundary lines between discharge electrodes covered with a dielectric layer and the film. It was found that intensive surface streamers play an essential role in the etching of the film and that a high etching rate more than 150 nm/min could be obtained.

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In this study, we investigated the characteristics of electrode grooves formed by etching silicon nitride (SixNy) films using surface-discharge plasma under Ar/CF4 and He/CF4 gases on the basis of differences in the widths of the electrode grooves etched on the SixNy film. The widths of the grooves etched using Ar as the carrier gas were narrower than those etched using He, and the etching speed achieved using Ar was higher than that achieved using He. Furthermore, the electrode groove created by surface-discharge plasma gradually widened as etching time and applied voltage increased.

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