Photovoltaic devices and method of manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10529883-B2
Application number	US-201414531425-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 3, 2014
Priority date	Nov 3, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2020
Grant date	Jan 7, 2020

Abstract

A photovoltaic device includes a substrate structure and at least one Se-containing layer, such as a CdSeTe layer. A process for manufacturing the photovoltaic device includes forming the CdSeTe layer over a substrate by at least one of sputtering, evaporation deposition, CVD, chemical bath deposition process, and vapor transport deposition process. The process can also include controlling a thickness range of the Se-containing layer.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A photovoltaic device comprising:
a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer,
a back contact; and
an absorber layer formed between the TCO layer and the back contact, wherein:
the absorber layer is composed of a CdSe x Te 1-x compound,
x is from about 0.01 to about 0.40,
a ratio of Se atoms to a sum of the Se atoms and Te atoms throughout the CdSe x Te 1-x compound is between 1 to 100 and 4 to 10,
Se is throughout the absorber layer,
the absorber layer has a concentration gradient of Se formed therein, and
a concentration of Se adjacent the TCO layer is higher than a concentration of Se adjacent the back contact.

2. The photovoltaic device of claim 1 , wherein the back contact is formed from one of ZnTe, CdZnTe, ZnTe:Cu, and a bi-layer including a layer of ZnTe and a layer of CdZnTe.

3. The photovoltaic device of claim 1 , further comprising a back metal electrode formed on the back contact.

4. The photovoltaic device of claim 3 , wherein the back metal electrode includes a layer of MoN x .

5. The photovoltaic device of claim 4 , wherein the back metal electrode further includes a layer of aluminum formed between a layer of chromium and the layer of MoN x .

6. The photovoltaic device of claim 3 , further comprising an interfacial layer formed from copper formed between the back metal electrode and the back contact.

7. The photovoltaic device of claim 1 , wherein x is from about 0.01 to about 0.25.

8. The photovoltaic device of claim 1 , wherein the TCO layer is formed from SnO x .

9. The photovoltaic device of claim 1 , wherein the TCO layer is formed from a layer of SnO x adjacent the substrate, a layer of SiO 2 formed on the SnO x layer, a layer of SnO 2 :F formed on the SiO 2 layer, and a layer of SnO 2 formed between the SnO 2 :F layer and the Se containing absorber layer.

10. The photovoltaic device of claim 1 , wherein the absorber layer is doped with copper.

11. The photovoltaic device of claim 1 , wherein the TCO layer comprises indium tin oxide.

12. The photovoltaic device of claim 1 , wherein the TCO layer comprises cadmium stannate.

13. A photovoltaic device comprising:
a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer,
a back contact layer;
a p-type absorber between the TCO layer and the back contact layer, wherein:
the p-type absorber comprises a surface adjacent the TCO layer and a surface adjacent the back contact,
the p-type absorber is composed of a CdSe x Te 1-x compound, wherein a ratio of Se atoms to a sum of the Se atoms and Te atoms in the CdSe x Te 1-x compound is between 1 to 100 and 4 to 10,
the p-type absorber has a concentration gradient of Se formed therein, and
a peak concentration of Se of the concentration gradient of Se is located within the p-type absorber and between the surface adjacent the TCO layer and the surface adjacent the back contact.

14. The photovoltaic device of claim 13 , further comprising a buffer layer between the TCO layer and the p-type absorber.

15. The photovoltaic device of claim 14 , wherein the photovoltaic device does not include a window layer.

16. The photovoltaic device of claim 14 , wherein the buffer layer comprises zinc magnesium oxide.

17. The photovoltaic device of claim 13 , wherein the TCO layer comprises indium tin oxide.

18. The photovoltaic device of claim 13 , wherein the TCO layer comprises cadmium stannate.

19. The photovoltaic device of claim 13 , wherein the back contact is formed from a bi-layer including a layer of ZnTe and a layer of CdZnTe.

Assignees

• First Solar Inc

Inventors

• Damjanovic Dan
• Gloeckler Markus
• Liao Feng
• Los Andrei
• Mao Dan
• Milliron Benjamin
• Mor Gopal
• Powell Rick
• Ring Kenneth
• Roggelin Aaron
• Trivedi Jigish
• Zhao Zhibo

Classifications

• H10F71/10

  the devices comprising amorphous semiconductor material · CPC title

• H01L31/02966

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/1828

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/073 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0296

  Electricity · mapped topic