Solar roof tile connectors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019379321-A1
Application number	US-201816006645-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 12, 2018
Priority date	Jun 12, 2018
Publication date	Dec 12, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

One embodiment can provide a photovoltaic roof tile. The photovoltaic roof tile can include a plurality of photovoltaic structures positioned between a front cover and a back cover, a bridge electrode coupled to a front-side busbar belonging to a photovoltaic structure, and a metallic strip positioned on a back side of the bridge electrode. The bridge electrode can include a substrate and at least one metallization layer positioned on a back surface of the substrate, and the metallization layer is electrically coupled to both the front-side busbar and the metallic strip, thereby enabling electrical coupling between the front-side busbar and the metallic strip.

First claim

1 . A photovoltaic roof tile, comprising:
a plurality of photovoltaic structures positioned between a front cover and a back cover; a bridge electrode coupled to a front-side busbar belonging to a photovoltaic structure; and a metallic strip positioned on a back side of the bridge electrode; wherein the bridge electrode comprises a substrate and at least one metallization layer positioned on a back surface of the substrate, and wherein the metallization layer is electrically coupled to both the front-side busbar and the metallic strip, thereby enabling electrical coupling between the front-side busbar and the metallic strip.

2 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 1 , wherein a respective photovoltaic structure comprises a front-side edge busbar positioned near an edge of a front surface and a back-side edge busbar positioned near an opposite edge of a back surface, and wherein the plurality of photovoltaic structures is arranged in such a way that the back-side edge busbar of a first photovoltaic structure overlaps the front-side edge busbar of an adjacent photovoltaic structure, thereby resulting in the plurality of photovoltaic structures forming a serially coupled string.

3 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 2 , wherein the metallization layer is coupled to a front-side edge busbar positioned at an end of the serially coupled string.

4 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 1 , wherein the substrate of the bridge electrode comprises one of:
a Si substrate; a glass substrate; and a plastic substrate.

5 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 1 , wherein the bridge electrode comprises one or more of:
an Al layer configured to substantially cover the back surface of the substrate; and a contact layer comprising Ag.

6 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 5 , wherein the contact layer comprises an edge busbar and a plurality of contact pads.

7 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 6 , wherein the bridge electrode is arranged in such a way that the edge busbar of the contact layer overlaps the front-side busbar of the photovoltaic structures.

8 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 6 , wherein the metallic strip is coupled to the contact pads.

9 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 5 , wherein the Al layer and the contact layer are formed using a screen printing technique.

10 . The photovoltaic roof tile of claim 1 , further comprising an external connector coupled to a back-side busbar belonging to a photovoltaic structure.

11 - 20 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Tesla Inc

Inventors

• Nguyen Peter P

Classifications

• H02S20/25 Primary

  Roof tile elements · CPC title

• H01L31/0201

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/043

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0504

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10F77/937

  Busbar structures for modules · CPC title