Development of nanoimprint lithography for solar cell texturisation

A novel processing scheme for the defined texturisation of silicon solar cells is presented. This process chain is based on nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to structure etching masks in combination with plasma etching processes for the pattern transfer into the silicon substrate. This process chain is intended for the honeycomb texturing of multicrystalline silicon solar cells. In this study we use high efficiency monocrystalline silicon to investigate the effect of the processes used without being limited by material related issues. Very high short circuit current densities exceeding 40 mA/cm² are demonstrated. Besides this proof of concept related studies, we report on our progress in developing a roller-NIL tool to allow a continuous process flow for structuring high-resolution etching masks.