JPH1044141A - Multiple wire saw and manufacture of wafer for solar cell using therewith - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize semiconductor wafers having curves shapes by a method wherein a stage, on and to which a block to be cut is installed and fixed, can become movable also normal to the direction for approaching to and separating from a wire. SOLUTION: Under the condition that wire guides 3 are fixed, a stage 2, to which a workpiece 1 is fixed, is lowered by its driving part towards a wire 4 in order to cut the workpiece vertically. Further, the stage 2 is made movable to the longitudinal direction of the workpiece 1 or to the C- and D-directions. Concretely, by moving the stage 2 to the positionally fixed wire 4, a semiconductor ingot 1 fixed to the stage 2 is cut into the desired shapes such as semiconductor wafers having the curved surface shape.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a multi-wire saw, and more particularly to a multi-wire saw used for slicing a semiconductor ingot and manufacturing a wafer.
The present invention also relates to a method for manufacturing a solar cell wafer using a multi-wire saw.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A multi-wire saw is generally used for thinly slicing a semiconductor ingot or the like and cutting out a wafer, and usually has a large number of wires. When a wafer is manufactured by slicing a semiconductor ingot using this multi-wire saw, the wires of this multi-wire saw are cut vertically or vertically with respect to a workpiece such as a semiconductor ingot to be cut. Therefore, the surface shape of the created wafer is flat.

[0003]

In recent years, there is a structure in which a solar cell is incorporated into a Japanese tile, but this solar cell is a flat plate and has a structure which can sufficiently cope with the curved shape of the Japanese tile. Not something. This is, as mentioned above,
This is because a wafer manufactured by cutting a semiconductor ingot using a conventional multi-wire saw becomes a flat plate.
Therefore, for example, it is very useful to have a multi-wire saw capable of obtaining a semiconductor wafer having a curved shape capable of coping with such a Japanese tile.

A solar cell manufactured from a flat semiconductor wafer also has the following problems.

That is, in the manufacturing process of a solar cell, there is a step of coating a semiconductor wafer with a paste containing silver as a main component and kneading with a resin by a printing technique to form electrodes. After the coating, so-called baking is performed in a furnace. During this baking, the paste shrinks, and the wafer is warped. This warpage increases as the thickness of the wafer decreases.

In a subsequent step, a transparent glass or a resin is stuck on the upper part of the solar cell having the electrodes formed on the wafer to form a solar cell module so as to have strength as a solar cell. However, when the wafer is warped as described above, cell cracks are likely to occur,
The yield as a product deteriorates.

Therefore, if the wafer itself has a slight warp in the direction opposite to the warp due to baking in advance, the wafer cracking can be reduced.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a multi-wire saw capable of manufacturing a semiconductor wafer having a curved surface or a curved shape when slicing a semiconductor ingot, and a method of manufacturing a solar cell using the multi-wire saw. It is to provide a method.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a multi-wire saw for simultaneously cutting a block to be cut with a plurality of wires, wherein a position of the wire and a wire guide for operating the wire are fixed. On the other hand, the stage for mounting and fixing the block to be cut can move close to and away from the wire, and can move in a direction orthogonal to the direction close to and away from the wire. It is characterized by.

In addition, the wire and a wire guide for operating the wire are brought close to the stage to be mounted and fixed on the block to be cut.
It is characterized in that it is possible to perform a separating operation and to move in a direction orthogonal to the approaching and separating directions.

As a method for manufacturing a solar cell wafer using the above-mentioned multi-wire, a notch is cut in a thickness direction of a semiconductor ingot by a multi-wire saw, and the slice is gradually sliced to obtain a semiconductor wafer. In the manufacturing method of (1), simultaneously with slicing in the thickness direction, by moving either the semiconductor ingot or the wire in one longitudinal direction orthogonal to the thickness direction of the semiconductor ingot, the sun having a curved cut surface It is characterized by obtaining a battery wafer.

In addition, at the same time as slicing the semiconductor ingot in the thickness direction, while moving either the semiconductor ingot or the wire in one longitudinal direction orthogonal to the thickness direction, the semiconductor ingot or the wire is moved to 1 / th of the thickness of the semiconductor ingot.
A first step of cutting the semiconductor ingot or the wire in a direction opposite to the one direction of the longitudinal direction, and the remaining half of the thickness of the semiconductor ingot is reduced following the first step. And a second step of cutting.

Further, as another manufacturing method of the present invention, simultaneously with slicing in the thickness direction of the semiconductor ingot, one of the semiconductor ingot and the wire is finely divided in one longitudinal direction orthogonal to the thickness direction of the semiconductor ingot. This method is characterized by obtaining a solar cell wafer having fine irregularities on the cut surface by repeating a small movement in the opposite direction to a small movement.

As described above, the semiconductor ingot or the wire is provided with a multi-wire configured to be movable not only in the thickness direction of the semiconductor ingot but also in the longitudinal direction of the semiconductor ingot. Since the slice is performed while moving in the longitudinal direction, the cross-sectional shape becomes a curved shape.

If the thus obtained curved wafer having a warp is used in, for example, a solar cell, the rate of occurrence of wafer cracking which has conventionally been caused by firing for forming electrodes is reduced. And contribute to the improvement of the yield.

The warped wafer is suitable for a solar cell to be incorporated into, for example, a Japanese tile.

Further, by forming fine irregularities on the cut surface, the wafer can be cut out of a texture structure formed by chemical processing or a groove structure formed by mechanical processing, which has conventionally been formed on the surface of a solar cell wafer. In this case, the number of manufacturing steps can be reduced and the cost can be reduced.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIGS. 1 and 2 are a front view and a side view of a slice portion of a semiconductor ingot, respectively, for explaining the concept of the multi-wire saw according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a work (semiconductor ingot) 1 is fixed to a stage 2 and is cut by a wire 4 held by a wire guide 3. In the figure, reference numeral 5 denotes a slurry for supplying abrasive grains and oil to the wire 4.

The wire guide 3 is fixed, and the stage 2 to which the work 1 is fixed is moved down by the drive unit (not shown) with respect to the wire 4 in order to cut the work 1 in the vertical direction. Stage 2
Can also be moved in the longitudinal direction of the work 1, that is, in the directions C and D in FIG. In other words, by moving the stage 2 with respect to the positionally fixed wire 4, the work 1 fixed to the stage 2 can be cut into a desired shape, here a curved shape. Has become.

At the time of actual cutting, the stage 2 is moved in the directions C and D simultaneously with the cutting in the directions A and B, so that a plurality of wafers 6 are finally warped as shown in FIG. In this state, the workpiece 1 hanging on the stage 2 is obtained. This is further divided individually for each wafer to obtain a wafer 6 having a curved shape as shown in FIG.

The specific cutting conditions are as follows.

Here, the wafer 6 to be finally obtained is
Was set to 1 mm at the center of the wafer for a 50 mm square (m in FIG. 4) wafer (1 of the wafer 6 in FIG. 4 was set to 1 mm). Note that a wire having a diameter of 140 μm is used.

In the following, the order of the steps will be described. First, the work 1 is fixed to the fixed wire guide 3 and wire 4.
Is lowered. This descent speed is 5
It was 10 μm / min. As a result, the work 1 is being cut. At this time, the stage 2 is simultaneously moved in the direction C. The moving speed V (t) is V (t) = − 5.4 × 10 ⁻⁸ t + 3.3 × 10 ⁻⁴ with the unit of the time t being seconds.

When cutting at this speed, 10 minutes after 100 minutes
Complete a half 50mm slice of the 0mm width,
As shown in FIG. 4, warpage of 1 mm occurs.

Next, from this point, by moving the stage 2 in the direction D opposite to C, all the slices of the work 1 are completed after another 100 minutes.
As a result of this step, as shown in FIG. 3, the plurality of wafers 6 each have a shape that hangs on the stage 2 in a warped state. More specifically, each wafer 6 (and the work 1 before slicing) is connected to an unillustrated discard plate made of carbon, and this discard plate is connected to the stage 2 by an adhesive.

After the slicing, the discarded plate and the wafer 6 are immersed in a solvent for dissolving the discarded plate.
A single wafer is obtained as shown in FIG.

If the wafer obtained as described above has a curved surface in advance, for example, even when this wafer is used as a solar cell, the wafer 6 has a convex portion (E side in FIG. 4). Even if the silver paste is coated and fired, the shrinkage due to the firing is reduced by the original warpage of the wafer 6 itself, so that cracking when modularized can be greatly reduced. For example, in the related art, about eight cracks occurred in 300 sliced wafers, but according to the present embodiment, the number of cracks occurring in the same 300 wafers is reduced to about one. did it.

In the above embodiment, the warpage at the central portion of the wafer is set to 1.0 mm for a 100 mm square wafer.
It is possible to form a warp of 0.5 to 2.5 mm with respect to the opposite side or the diameter of a wafer having a 0 mm square or a circular cross section.

In this embodiment, the wire guide 3 and the wire 4 are fixed, and the work 1 is moved up and down and back and forth by the stage 2. However, the work 1 is fixed and the wire guide is fixed. It is good also as composition which moves 3 and wire 4 side. However, moving the work 1, as in the above-described embodiment, simplifies the configuration of the entire multi-wire saw and enables a stable cutting operation, rather than moving the wire side that also performs the cutting operation.

As described above, a curved wafer having a warp can be produced. However, by adding the following steps, the anti-reflection structure of the solar cell conventionally formed in another step can be simultaneously formed. can do.

That is, in addition to the above-described operation of the stage 2 for obtaining the warp in the CD direction, a finer CD-to-D operation is performed to provide fine irregularities on the wafer surface. it can.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the stage 2 is lowered at a speed of 510 μm / min for 5 seconds and stopped for 5 seconds. Then, during the stop time of 5 seconds, the stage 2 is moved in the direction C at a speed of 32 μm / S for 2.5 seconds, and then moved in the opposite direction D at the same speed of 32 μm / S for 2.5 seconds. . Hereinafter, by repeating the operation during the stop for 5 seconds, the surface of the work 1 can be formed as a surface having a large number of recesses 7 and having irregularities. The pitch interval between the concave portions obtained by this embodiment is 150 μm, and the depth is 80 μm. As a guide for another embodiment, the pitch between the concave portions is about 40 to 160 μm, and the depth is about 3 to 80 μm.

By forming the irregularities on the wafer surface as described above, it was possible to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency by about 0.2% when used as a solar cell, as compared with the case where a flat wafer was used.

Conventionally, in order to improve the energy absorption of sunlight in a solar cell, a so-called texture structure is formed on the surface by chemically treating the surface of the wafer in a manufacturing process, or a mechanical structure is formed by a dicing apparatus. A method has been devised to form a groove on the wafer surface and confine sunlight inside the cell. However, as a matter of course, these operations are performed in a step different from the slicing step, and there is a problem that the number of steps and the amount of work are increased.

In this regard, according to the present embodiment, since the wafer can be cut out of the semiconductor ingot and the uneven shape can be formed on the wafer surface at the same time, the number of steps and the amount of work can be reduced.

In this embodiment, a wire having a diameter of 140 μm is used as a wire. However, if a wire having a smaller diameter is used, the pitch interval and the depth of unevenness can be more easily controlled.

In addition, a method for forming irregularities on this surface is as follows.
It is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a wafer having a conventional structure having no warp.

[0039]

As described above, according to the multi-wire saw of the present invention, a curved wafer having a warp can be cut out from a semiconductor ingot. Thus, for example, even when a solar cell to be incorporated into a Japanese tile is to be manufactured, a wafer that can cope with the tile shape can be manufactured, and further, wafer cracking can be reduced in the solar cell manufacturing process.

Further, fine irregularities on the wafer surface can also be formed. Thereby, for example, in the case of using a wafer for a solar cell, conventionally, a texture structure and a groove structure for realizing a surface anti-reflection structure were formed by chemical treatment, mechanical treatment, etc. Since it can be formed at the same time as the wafer is cut out, the number of steps can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view for explaining a configuration of a multi-wire saw according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view for explaining a configuration of a multi-wire saw according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a state where an ingot is sliced by the multi-wire saw of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a single wafer obtained by the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a method of manufacturing an uneven shape on a wafer surface according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Semiconductor ingot 2 Stage 3 Wire guide 4 Wire 7 Recess

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A multi-wire saw for simultaneously cutting a block to be cut by a plurality of wires, wherein a position of the wire and a wire guide for operating the wire is fixed, and a stage for mounting and fixing the block to be cut is provided. A multi-wire saw, wherein an operation of approaching and separating from the wire is enabled, and a movement in a direction orthogonal to the direction of approaching and separating is enabled. 2. A multi-wire saw for simultaneously cutting a block to be cut by a plurality of wires, wherein a stage for mounting and fixing the block to be cut is:
The wire and a wire guide for operating the wire can be moved toward and away from the block to be cut, and can be moved in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the approach and separation. And a multi-wire saw. 3. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein:
In a method for manufacturing a solar cell wafer, in which a notch is cut by a multi-wire saw and gradually sliced to obtain a semiconductor wafer, simultaneously with the slicing in the thickness direction, either the semiconductor ingot or the wire is sliced in the thickness direction of the semiconductor ingot. A method for manufacturing a solar cell wafer, characterized in that a solar cell wafer having a curved cut surface is obtained by moving the solar cell wafer in one longitudinal direction perpendicular to the vertical direction. 4. A semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein:
In a method for manufacturing a solar cell wafer, in which a cut is made by a multi-wire saw and gradually sliced to obtain a semiconductor wafer, at the same time as slicing in the thickness direction, either the semiconductor ingot or the wire is orthogonal to the thickness direction. A first step of cutting up to half the thickness of the semiconductor ingot while moving the semiconductor ingot in one direction in the longitudinal direction; and following the first step, the semiconductor ingot or the wire is moved in one direction in the longitudinal direction. Move in the opposite direction,
The second to cut the remaining half of the thickness of the semiconductor ingot
And a method for manufacturing a solar cell wafer. 5. The semiconductor ingot according to claim 1, wherein:
In a method for manufacturing a solar cell wafer, in which a cut is made by a multi-wire saw and gradually sliced to obtain a semiconductor wafer, simultaneously with the slicing in the thickness direction, either the semiconductor ingot or the wire is subjected to the thickness of the semiconductor ingot. Manufacturing a solar cell wafer characterized by obtaining a solar cell wafer having fine irregularities on a cut surface by repeating a minute movement in one direction in a longitudinal direction perpendicular to the direction and a minute movement in a reverse direction. Method.