Silicon solar cell texturing is the process of reducing the light reflection of the solar cells by changing their surface structure. Given that multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) wafers have grains with different orientations, their texturing process is more difficult to realize compared with those of monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si) wafers. There are two types of texturing processes: wet and dry texturing. Acidic solution-based wet-textured me-Si samples have higher reflectance values than mono-Si wafers. However, the reactive ion etching (RIE)-texturing of me-Si wafers has the advantage of decreasing reflectance to values below 10%. Despite this decrease in reflectance, RIE byproducts and plasma-induced damage bring about recombination that results in a decrease the passivation properties of the solar cell. In this study, the RIE byproducts as well as the plasma-induced damage of the RIE-textured me-Si wafers were analyzed using SEM, STEM, and EDS analysis, while quasi-steady-state photoconductance (QSSPC) was used to confirm the optical characteristics of the RIE-textured me-Si wafers. Additionally, HF treatment resulted in byproduct removal, and a relatively high implied V-oc (673 mV) was confirmed within 3 min of HF treatment. The defect removal etching (DRE) process using KOH was applied to remove the lattice defect layer, and after 40 s of the DRE treatment, the implied V-oc increased to (similar to)680 mV. Thus, the RIE-textured mc-Si solar cell showed a power conversion efficiency of 19.6%, which was (similar to)0.6% higher than that of acid-textured me-Si solar cells based on the increase in short-circuit current (I-sc).