This work introduces metal assisted etching for surface texturing of saw-damage free crystalline silicon independent from the crystallographic orientation. A noble metal serves as a catalyst for the chemical etching in an aqueous solution containing hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid. Metal assisted textured String Ribbon solar cells show a reduction Delta R-eff=-16%(rel) for the effective reflection R-eff compared to untextured String Ribbon solar cells. This improvement results in an increase Delta J(sc)=+1.4 mA/cm(2) of the short circuit current density J(sc). Therefore, the median solar cell efficiency eta increases by Delta eta=+0.4% from eta(untex)=14.1% to eta(rex)=14.5%. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.