HF etched glass substrates for improved thin-film solar cells

Abstract

A hemisphere-array textured glass substrate was fabricated for the development of an improved thin-film (TF) silicon solar cell. The HF-H2SO4-etchant system influenced the light path owing to the formation of the strong fluorine-containing HSO3F acid. In particular, the etching system of the various HF concentration with a constant H2SO4 solution is related to make an improvement of optical transmittance and light trapping structure without a uniform pattern. According to the specular transmittance measurements, the haze ratio was maintained for the glass sample etched with 35% HF in the longer-wavelength region. The proposed substrate was implemented in a TF-Si solar cell, and an improved conversion efficiency was observed according to the short-circuit current density owing to the increase in the haze ratio. This morphology, therefore, induces more scattering at the front side of the cell and leads to an improvement of the open circuit voltage gain for the HF 25% cell. It will be helpful to understand the application of thin film solar cell based on the HF-H2SO4 etching system for the readers.

Glass etching with gaseous hydrogen fluoride: Rapid management of surface nano‐roughness

“…Such the nanoscale roughness of flat glasses is usually constructed by machine processing such as sandblast or by wet etching with using hydrofluoric acid (aqueous solution of hydrogen fluoride [HF]) 13–17 . However, these techniques require additional process for etching after producting the flat glasses.…”

“…12 Such the nanoscale roughness of flat glasses is usually constructed by machine processing such as sandblast or by wet etching with using hydrofluoric acid (aqueous solution of hydrogen fluoride [HF]). [13][14][15][16][17] However, these techniques require additional process for etching after producting the flat glasses. To resolve this disadvantage, here, we propose to use gaseous HF at high temperature (hundreds of degrees of Celsius) for etching the flat glass.…”

Fabrication of p-NiO/n-TiO2 Solar Device for Photovoltaic Application

“…This study is aimed at improving solar cells' by fabricating a heterojunction p-NiO/n-TiO 2 using spin coating, spray pyrolysis, and DC Magnetron sputtering. Improving the open-circuit voltage, shortcircuit current density, and fill factor will improve efficiency [2]. Solar cells have experienced a transition with emphasis on cost, toxicity, and efficiency.…”

Optimization and Characterization of Aluminum Induced Texture Using Radio Frequency Power

“…Thin film solar cell has many advantages [2][3][4] as active thin layers that decrease material usage, improve the rate of production and reduce the carrier collection length and bulk recombination [5][6][7]. Different glass texturing methods have been used in recent years to improve the efficiency of thin film PV application such as chemical etching with hydrofluoric acid [8], liquid surface coating (solgel) containing SiO2 spheres [9], hot embossing [10], aluminum induced texture [11,12,13], plasma etching or reactive ion etching with or without natural lithography [14,15]. In order to enhance the performance of thin film silicon solar cell, it is strategic to use textured glass by aluminum induced texture process [16,17].…”