Solar cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9793422-B2
Application number	US-201615046397-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 17, 2016
Priority date	Mar 19, 2010
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

The present invention is to grant a margin in the control of a depth of a groove when removing a transparent insulation layer after the transparent insulation layer is formed on the entire surface of the transparent conductive layer, thereby provide a solar cell which has superior productivity in mass manufacturing. A solar cell includes an n-type amorphous silicon layer formed on a front-surface side of an n-type monocrystalline silicon the substrate; a front-surface side transparent conductive layer formed on the n-type amorphous silicon layer; a p-type amorphous silicon layer formed on a rear-surface-side of the substrate; and a rear-surface-side transparent conductive layer formed on the p-type amorphous silicon layer. A front-surface side collector electrode is formed by plating on the front-surface side transparent conductive layer whereas a rear-surface-side collector electrode is formed on the rear-surface-side transparent conductive layer by printing.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A solar cell comprising:
a crystalline semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type;
a first semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type on a first surface of the crystalline semiconductor substrate;
a first collector electrode on the first semiconductor layer;
a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type on a second surface of the crystalline semiconductor substrate;
a second collector electrode on the second semiconductor layer; and
a transparent conductive layer and a transparent insulation layer stacked in this order over the first semiconductor layer, wherein
the first collector electrode is in a groove extending from the transparent insulation layer to the transparent conductive layer,
in a cross section of the solar cell passing through the first collector electrode, a width of the groove at a boundary between the transparent insulation layer and the transparent conductive layer is larger than a width of the groove at a side of the crystalline semiconductor substrate.

2. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the first and second semiconductor layers are amorphous semiconductor layers.

3. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the first conductive type is an n-type and the second conductive type is a p-type.

4. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein in the cross section a border between the groove and the transparent conductive layer has a curved shape.

5. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein
the first surface is a light receiving surface, and the second surface is an opposite surface to the light receiving surface.

6. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the first collector electrode is formed by plating.

7. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the first collector electrode has a smaller area than the second collector electrode.

8. The solar cell according to claim 1 , further comprising a second transparent conductive layer on the second semiconductor layer.

9. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the second collector electrode is formed by a printing method or a vapor deposition method.

10. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the groove is formed by laser machining.

11. The solar cell according to claim 1 , wherein the first collector electrode includes a plated membrane.

12. A solar cell comprising:
a crystalline semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type;
a first semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type on a first surface of the crystalline semiconductor substrate;
a first collector electrode on the first semiconductor layer;
a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type on a second surface of the crystalline semiconductor substrate;
a second collector electrode on the second semiconductor layer; and
a transparent conductive layer and a transparent insulation layer stacked in this order over the first semiconductor layer, wherein
the first collector electrode is in a groove extending to both of the transparent insulation layer and the transparent conductive layer, and
a width of the groove in a top surface of the transparent insulation layer is larger than a width of the groove in a bottom surface of the transparent insulation layer.

13. A solar cell comprising:
a crystalline semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type;
a first semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type on a first surface of the crystalline semiconductor substrate;
a first collector electrode on the first semiconductor layer;
a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type on a second surface of the crystalline semiconductor substrate;
a second collector electrode on the second semiconductor layer; and
a transparent conductive layer and a transparent insulation layer stacked in this order over the first semiconductor layer, wherein
the first collector electrode is in a groove extending to both of the transparent insulation layer and the transparent conductive layer, and
when the solar cell is seen along a thickness direction, an area of the groove at a boundary between the transparent insulating layer and the transparent conductive layer is larger than an area of the groove at a side of the crystalline semiconductor substrate.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Tsuge Sadaji

Classifications

• H01L31/048

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/022425

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/03762

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/03682

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0747

  Electricity · mapped topic