+0.4% Efficiency gain by novel texture for String Ribbon solar cells

Abstract This work introduces metal assisted etching for surface texturing of saw-damage free crystalline silicon independent from the crystallographic orientation. A noble metal serves as a catalyst for the chemical etching in an aqueous solution containing hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid. Metal assisted textured String Ribbon solar cells show a reduction Δ R eff =−16% rel for the effective reflection R eff compared to untextured String Ribbon solar cells. This improvement results in an increase Δ J sc =+1.4 mA/cm 2 of the short circuit current density J sc . Therefore, the median solar cell efficiency η increases by Δ η =+0.4% from η untex =14.1% to η tex =14.5%.