Rung-Ywan TSAI^1*, Chung-Ta CHENG¹, Chin-Tien YANG², Shuen-Chen CHEN¹, Chun-Chieh HUANG¹, Shih-Wei CHEN³, and Wen-Haw LU³

¹Industrial Technology Research Institute, Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories, Hsinchu 310, Taiwan
²Industrial Technology Research Institute, Nanotechnology Research Center, Hsinchu 310, Taiwan
³Industrial Technology Research Institute, Green Energy and Environmental Research Laboratories, Hsinchu 310, Taiwan

(Received August 15, 2012; Revised December 28, 2012; Accepted December 28, 2012)

The application of blue laser lithography for creating antireflective submicron structures on a crystalline silicon substrate was evaluated. The assembled blue laser lithography system was obtained by modifying a commercial blue laser optical pickup head and consisting of a 405-nm-wavelength blue laser and a 0.85-numerical-aperture objective lens. Si substrates were patterned with submicron column patterns of various periods and aspect ratios by blue laser lithography using a sputtered Ge–Sb–Sn–O layer as a resist. The reflectance of the patterned Si substrate decreased to 3% on average in the 300–1000 nm wavelength range, with a low sensitivity to the angle of incident light. Such patterned substrates showed potential for application in crystalline Si solar cells.

Key words: blue laser lithography, submicron structure, antireflection coating, Ge–Sb–Sn–O layer, solar cell

^*E-mail address: ry{_}tsai@itri.org.tw