In this work we propose the use of a plasma dry etching technique to condition the morphology of a silicon surface. The low environmental impacted NF3 halogen compound is adopted together with Ar to perform a multi-step process which helps to enhance the silicon surface texturing, thus reducing the time needed for the whole dry etching procedure, which also include saw damage removal on silicon wafers. A detailed study of surface reflectance and etching rate as a function of the dry plasma process parameters is discussed to achieve suitable multi-crystalline silicon surfaces for photovoltaic applications. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.