TY - GEN A1 - Meinel, Birgit A1 - Koschwitz, Tim A1 - Heinemann, Robert A1 - Acker, Jörg T1 - The texturization process during horizontal acidic etching of multi-crystalline silicon wafers T2 - Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing N2 - Horizontal wet-chemical etching of silicon wafers in an HF/HNO3/H2SiF6 mixture is the most widely-used technique to texturize multi-crystalline silicon wafers for solar cell production. For the first time, the etch rates were determined separately for the upper and lower side during the horizontal texturization and the their different morphologies. The dependency of the surface morphology from the etch rate and etch depth is proven. Furthermore, the influence of the temperature and stirring rates on the morphological development for the upper and lower side of the wafer were examined. From temperature-dependent measurements, activation energies in the range from 17 kJ/mol to 40 kJ/mol on the upper side and from 23 kJ/mol to 40 kJ/mol on the lower side dependent from the etching time were determined. The observed results reveal a connection between the etch depth, the agitation of the etch solution, the morphology and the reflectivity of the separate wafer sides. KW - Acidic etching KW - Surface properties KW - Confocal microscopy KW - Reflectivity KW - Activation energy KW - silicon KW - HF/HNO3 mixture KW - solar cell Y1 - 2014 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136980011400482X U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2014.08.047 SN - 1369-8001 VL - 26 SP - 695 EP - 703 ER -