Thin film solar cell backside contact

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9577130-B2
Application number	US-201615249798-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2016
Priority date	Jun 22, 2015
Publication date	Feb 21, 2017
Grant date	Feb 21, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments relate to a thin film solar cell backside contact. A planar substrate is provided and an associated backside of the substrate is modified to form one or more pedestals. The modified substrate is layered with multiple layers of material, including a conducting layer, a reflective layer, and a passivation layer. The layered backside substrate is polished to expose portions of the conducting layer at discrete locations on the backside of the substrate. The exposed portions of the conducting layer maintain direct electrical communication between an absorber layer deposited on the layered backside substrate and the conducting layer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thin film solar cell, the cell comprising:
a layered, backside contact comprising an embossed substrate, a conducting layer, a reflective layer, and a passivation layer, the contact polished to expose portions of the conducting layer at the surface of the contact;
an absorber layer in communication with the contact;
a buffer layer in communication with the absorber layer;
a transparent layer in communication with the buffer layer;
a contact grid in communication with the transparent layer; and
an anti-reflective coating in communication with the contact grid and the transparent layer.

2. The cell of claim 1 , wherein the conducting layer is constructed from a Molybdenum (Mo) material.

3. The cell of claim 1 , wherein the reflective layer is constructed from a silver (Ag) material.

4. The cell of claim 1 , wherein the passivation layer is constructed from an Aluminum Oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) material.

5. The cell of claim 1 , wherein the absorber layer is constructed from a material selected from the group consisting of: Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) and copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS).

6. The cell of claim 5 , wherein the layer of CIGS is between 0.5 and 5 micrometers in thickness.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Eickelmann Hans-Juergen
• Kellmann Ruediger
• Kuehl Hartmut
• Schmidt Markus

Classifications

• H01L31/02168

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/02008

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0322

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0547

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0326

  Electricity · mapped topic