Electrodeposition of thin-film cells containing non-toxic elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9450136-B2
Application number	US-201514699137-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2015
Priority date	Aug 31, 2010
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

A structure and method of making a thin-film solar cell is provided. A thin-film solar cell includes a substrate, absorber layer and a buffer layer. The absorber layer is deposited by a single-step bulk electrochemical process, or a multi-layer electrochemical process. The buffer layer is deposited by an electrochemical deposition process such as a multi-layer deposition or an atomic layer deposition. The absorber and buffer layers are non-toxic materials which can include sulfur incorporated during the deposition process or incorporated after deposition by an anneal step.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of manufacturing a thin-film cell, the method comprising:
providing a substrate;
depositing an absorber layer onto the substrate; and
depositing a buffer layer onto the absorber layer, wherein the absorber layer and the buffer layer are made from non-toxic materials;
wherein the depositing the absorber layer and the buffer layer is performed using an electrochemical atomic layer deposition process carried out under illumination so as excite electrons from a valence band to a conduction band, wherein the electrons at an edge of the conduction band at a solid/liquid interface are energetically higher than that of a redox potential of S 2 O 3 2− /ZnS; and
wherein the step of depositing the absorber layer onto the substrate is carried out by depositing a thin-film of Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 using an electrochemical deposition process, wherein sulfur is contained in a solution used in the process.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of depositing the absorber layer onto the substrate is carried out using a single-step bulk electrochemical deposition process.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of depositing the absorber layer onto the substrate is carried out using multiple-layer electrochemical deposition.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of depositing the absorber layer onto the substrate is carried out using a single-step bulk electrochemical deposition process and wherein the electrochemical deposition process used to deposit the buffer layer is a multiple layer electrochemical deposition process.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Deligianni Hariklia
• Guo Lian
• Vaidyanathan Raman

Classifications

• C25D3/58 Primary

  containing more than 50% by weight of copper · CPC title

• H10F77/128

  comprising only Group I-II-IV-VI kesterite materials, e.g. Cu2ZnSnSe4 or Cu2ZnSnS4 · CPC title

• H10F77/12

  Active materials · CPC title

• H10F71/128

  Annealing · CPC title

• H10F71/00 Primary

  Manufacture or treatment of devices covered by this subclass (patterning processes to connect thin photovoltaic cells in integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, having photovoltaic cells H10F19/33; manufacture or treatment of encapsulations or containers for integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, having photovoltaic cells H10F19/80; manufacture or treatment of integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, comprising at least one element in which radiation controls the flow of current H10F39/00) · CPC title