Apr 9 2010
With SELURIS® Clean, BASF is extending its range of process chemicals for the manufacture of solar cells with a new, environmentally-friendly cleaning solution. SELURIS® Clean, available immediately, offers advantages for the production of solar cells. It enables efficient hydrophilicity, i.e. the targeted modification of surface activity, as well as subsequent cleaning and passivation of the solar cell wafers. Additionally, SELURIS® Clean can also be used at lower temperatures, which automatically cuts costs.
SELURIS ® Clean – simply better cleaning
SELURIS® Clean is used twice in the manufacturing process for solar cells – both before and after the phosphoric acid doping procedure. Before doping, the cut and texturized silicon wafers must be rendered hydrophilic. This allows excellent surface wetting and therefore more homogenous distribution of the phosphoric acid on the wafer. This, in turn, later results in an optimum solar cell performance.
After doping, SELURIS® Clean primarily acts as an efficient cleaning agent. Any unwanted residual phosphorous remaining on the surface is removed quickly and easily. This cleaning stage reduces the occurrence of undesired electrical errors, which would otherwise result in reduced solar cell performance. This is also referred to as improved passivation of the wafer surface.
"SELURIS® Clean extends our portfolio of process chemicals in a field for which we can draw on expertise and solutions from throughout BASF, particularly our experience in electronic materials. As one of the market leaders in the field of electronic materials, we are an ideal partner for customers from the solar cell industry as we can use our chemical innovations to boost its competitiveness compared with other energy sources," says Dr. Ulrich Büschges, Head of the Electronic Materials Business Unit at BASF. He adds, "We are already working on more innovative products for the solar industry, which, for us, is a key future market."
SELURIS ® – for added manufacturing efficiency and performance
With the SELURIS® product range, BASF is offering customers process chemicals for the etching, texturing and doping of both mono- and polycrystalline solar cells, which are specifically adjusted to the manufacturing process of solar cells. That is why the purity grades, for example, are tailor-made for the use in solar cell production. Part of the SELURIS® range are etching and texturizing chemicals, which enable saw damage to be rectified and the wafer surfaces to be structured. In addition, the portfolio also includes high-purity phosphorus oxychloride (POCl3) for subsequent wafer doping.