Photovoltaic element

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9627568-B2
Application number	US-201514920224-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 22, 2015
Priority date	May 17, 2013
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed is a photovoltaic device comprising a substrate composed of an oriented polycrystalline zinc oxide sintered body in a plate shape, a photovoltaic layer provided on the substrate, and an electrode provided on the photovoltaic layer. According to the present invention, a photovoltaic device having high photoelectric conversion efficiency can be inexpensively provided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A photovoltaic device comprising:
a substrate composed of an oriented polycrystalline zinc oxide sintered body in a plate shape;
a photovoltaic layer provided on the substrate; and
an electrode provided on the photovoltaic layer.

2. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein zinc oxide single crystal grains constituting the oriented polycrystalline zinc oxide sintered body have an average grain diameter of 1 to 100 μm.

3. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the photovoltaic layer has a structure epitaxially grown in conformity with the orientation of the oriented polycrystalline zinc oxide sintered body, and thereby has a crystallographic direction aligned in a normal direction.

4. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the oriented polycrystalline zinc oxide sintered body has an orientation in (100) plane, (002) plane, or (101) plane.

5. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the oriented polycrystalline zinc oxide sintered body has a degree of orientation of 50% or greater.

6. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the photovoltaic layer comprises any one selected from the group consisting of a combination of an n-type layer, an i-type layer, and a p-type layer, a combination of an n-type layer, a buffer layer, and a p-type layer, a combination of an n-type layer and a p-type layer, and a combination of an n-type layer and a metal thin film.

7. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the photovoltaic layer comprises any one selected from the group consisting of a combination of an i-type layer and a p-type layer, a combination of a buffer layer and a p-type layer, a p-type layer alone, and a metal thin film alone; and wherein the oriented polycrystalline zinc oxide sintered body is doped with an n-type dopant, and thereby the substrate functions as an n-type layer.

8. The photovoltaic device according to claim 7 , wherein the n-type dopant comprises one or more selected from the group consisting of aluminum (Al), gallium (Ga), indium (In), boron (B), fluorine (F), chlorine (CI), bromine (Br), iodine (I), and silicon (Si).

9. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the oriented polycrystalline zinc oxide sintered body is composed of ZnO formed into a mixed crystal with a crystal of one or more selected from the group consisting of MgO, CdO, ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe.

10. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the substrate functions as a counter electrode.

11. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , further comprising a counter electrode on the opposite side of the substrate from the photovoltaic layer.

12. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the electrode is a transparent conductive film or a metal electrode having a lattice structure or a moth-eye structure.

13. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , wherein the substrate has an area of 25 cm 2 or greater.

14. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , which is any one of a PIN photodiode, a PN photodiode, and a Schottky photodiode.

15. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , which is used as a silicon-based solar cell or a CIGS-based solar cell.

16. The photovoltaic device according to claim 1 , which is used as an ultraviolet sensor.

Assignees

• Ngk Insulators Ltd

Inventors

• Ichimura Mikiya
• Yoshikawa Jun
• Imai Katsuhiro

Classifications

• Y02E10/541

  CuInSe2 material PV cells · CPC title

• H01L31/03923

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/077 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0368

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0749

  Electricity · mapped topic