Solar cell including microlens and method of fabricating the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9240509-B2
Application number	US-201113090817-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 20, 2011
Priority date	Apr 27, 2010
Publication date	Jan 19, 2016
Grant date	Jan 19, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of fabricating a microlens. The method includes forming a self assembly monolayer having a strong hydrophobicity on a substrate; forming a plurality of ink droplets on the self assembly monolayer by jetting a transparent ink using an inkjet apparatus, the transparent ink including a first solvent having a first boiling point, a second solvent having a second boiling point lower than the first boiling point and a silicon oxide (SiOx) solid material dispersed in the first and second solvents; and drying the plurality of ink droplets.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solar cell, comprising:
a first substrate;
a first transparent electrode on the first substrate;
a first positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) junction semiconductor layer on the first transparent electrode, wherein the first PIN junction semiconductor layer includes a negative (N) type semiconductor layer on the first transparent electrode, an intrinsic semiconductor layer on the N type semiconductor layer and a positive (P) type semiconductor layer on the intrinsic semiconductor layer, and wherein the N type and P type semiconductor layers include silicon doped with N type and P type impurities, respectively, and the intrinsic semiconductor layer includes hydrogenated silicon;
a second transparent electrode on the first PIN junction semiconductor layer;
a second substrate directly on an entire surface of the second transparent electrode; and
a light collecting means on the second substrate and second transparent electrode,
wherein the light collecting means includes a self assembly monolayer having at least one hydrophobic portion directly contacting an entire surface of a third substrate, and a plurality of hydrophilic microlenses directly on the self assembly monolayer, wherein the self assembly monolayer and the plurality of hydrophilic microlenses are between the second substrate and the third substrate, and
wherein the plurality of hydrophilic microlenses include a plurality of hardened ink droplets.

2. The solar cell according to claim 1 , further comprising a second PIN junction semiconductor layer under the first PIN junction semiconductor layer and a third PIN junction semiconductor layer under the second PIN junction semiconductor layer, wherein the first to third PIN junction semiconductor layers have the same structure as one another.

3. The solar cell according to claim 2 , wherein band gap energies of the first to third PIN junction semiconductor layers gradually increase from the first PIN junction semiconductor layer to the third PIN junction semiconductor layer.

4. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of hardened ink droplets comprise silicon oxide (SiOx) solid material.

5. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein a light inputted into the solar cell with an incident angle is refracted by the plurality of hydrophilic microlenses to be outputted with a refraction angle smaller than the incident angle.

6. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the self assembly monolayer includes a head group, a main chain group and a hydrophobic end group.

7. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of ink droplets has a truncated spherical shape where a portion smaller than a half volume of the whole sphere is eliminated.

Assignees

• Kim Jae-Hyun
• Park Seong-Kee
• Lim Jung-Shik
• Lee Tae-Young
• Kim Min-Cheol
• Lg Display Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kim Jae-Hyun
• Park Seong-Kee
• Lim Jung-Shik
• Lee Tae-Young
• Kim Min-Cheol

Classifications

• H10F77/48

  Back surface reflectors [BSR] · CPC title

• H10F10/17

  Photovoltaic cells having only PIN junction potential barriers · CPC title

• H10F77/484 Primary

  Refractive light-concentrating means, e.g. lenses · CPC title

• G02B3/0056

  arranged along two different directions in a plane, e.g. honeycomb arrangement of lenses (G02B3/0043 takes precedence; miniaturised objectives for electronic devices employing wafer level optics G02B13/0085) · CPC title

• Y02E10/548

  Amorphous silicon PV cells · CPC title