Fantasy Project

The EU has set ambitious goals for power production from solar energy. Current technical and financial obstacles must be overcome in order to succeed. The EU has funded research to improve the efficiency of solar technology, such as the Fantasi project addressing multicrystailine silicon (mc-Si) solar cells.

The THT, a partner in the Fantasi consortium, took on the task of optimising an etching technique called 'Negative potential dissolution' (NPD). Texturing the mc-Si surface improves its performance, but until now has been a costly procedure.

The Israeli material scientists began working with monocrystalline silicon and then extended the results to multisilicon as well as edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) silicon. Their experimental campaign revealed that a negative potential of -20 V or lower must be maintained. In addition, they identified a maximum rate of silicon removal when the alkaline concentration of the solution was kept between 20 and 24 %.

The NPD process was manipulated to produce both isotropic and anisotropic texturing. Finally, time is a critical parameter and THT was able to deliver high-quality results in under 60 seconds.

Future efforts of THT and its Fantasi partners will focus on expanding the application of NPD technology and enlarging the texturing surface area.

(Source ResearchEU)

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