NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy

Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy

Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC

This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy

Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308

Development of Black Silicon 

Antireflection Control and 

Passivation Technology for 

Commercial Application

Cooperative Research and 

Development Final Report

CRADA Number: CRD-12-475

NREL Technical Contact: Hao-Chih Yuan

CRADA Report

NREL/TP-5J00-62185

June 2014
NOTICE

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Cover Photos: (left to right) photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 16416, photo from SunEdison, NREL 17423, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 

16560, photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 17613, photo by Dean Armstrong, NREL 17436, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 17721.

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This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Cooperative Research and Development Final Report

In accordance with Requirements set forth in Article XI.A(3) of the CRADA document, this 

document is the final CRADA report, including a list of Subject Inventions, to be forwarded to 

the Office of Science and Technical Information as part of the commitment to the public to 

demonstrate results of federally funded research.

CRADA Number: CRD-12-475 

CRADA Title: Development of Black Silicon Antireflection Control and Passivation 

Technology for Commercial Application

Parties to the Agreement: Natcore Technology, Inc. 

Joint Work Statement Funding Table Showing DOE Commitment: 

Estimated Costs NREL Shared Resources

Year 1 $ 50,000.00

TOTALS $ 50,000.00

Abstract of CRADA Work: 

This work involves the development of a commercial manufacturing process for both 

multicrystalline and monocrystalline silicon solar cells that combines the National Renewable 

Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) black silicon technology and Natcore’s passivation technology.

Summary of Research Results: 

NREL hosted three engineers/scientists from Natcore Technology, Inc. for three-and-half days 

shortly after the kickoff of the CRADA. The face-to-face meeting built team synergy while 

allowing the NREL team to transfer the licensed technology and knowledge to Natcore by 

demonstrating NREL’s black silicon antireflection etching process as well as the diffusedjunction solar cell fabrication in the laboratory.

NREL identified crucial design considerations as black silicon formation could be implemented 

at different stages of the solar cell processing sequence and found that emitter formation 

condition needs to be adjusted accordingly to optimize the black silicon solar cell performance.

NREL also established a collaborative study with Prof. Mool Gupta at the University of Virginia 

to incorporate laser processing into solar cell fabrication and explored other potential 

applications of Natcore’s passivation technology in silicon solar cell technology. 

NREL’s primary investigator presented the research result at the 38th IEEE Photovoltaic 

Specialists Conference in June 2012, and co-authored a publication titled Antireflection and SiO2 

surface passivation by liquid-phase chemistry for efficient black silicon solar cells on the 

conference proceeding with Natcore’s team members. 
2 

This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications.

Subject Inventions Listing: 

None 

Report Date: 

April 24, 2014 

Responsible Technical Contact at Alliance/NREL: 

Hao-Chih Yuan 

This document contains NO confidential, protectable, or proprietary information.