Shingled solar cell panel employing hidden taps

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9947820-B2
Application number	US-201514674983-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2015
Priority date	May 27, 2014
Publication date	Apr 17, 2018
Grant date	Apr 17, 2018

Abstract

A high efficiency configuration for a solar cell module comprises solar cells arranged in a shingled manner to form super cells, which may be arranged to efficiently use the area of the solar module, reduce series resistance, and increase module efficiency. Each super cell comprises a plurality of rectangular or substantially rectangular silicon solar cells arranged in line with long sides of adjacent silicon solar cells overlapping and conductively bonded directly to each other to electrically connect the silicon solar cells in series. A super cell may comprise a hidden tap contact pad located on a back surface of a solar cell located at an intermediate position along the super cell. In some variations the overlapping sides of adjacent silicon soar cells in a super cell are flexibly bonded to each other, and a flexible electrical interconnect is rigidly bonded to one of the solar cells.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solar module comprising:
a plurality of super cells arranged in two or more parallel rows, each super cell comprising a plurality of rectangular or substantially rectangular silicon solar cells arranged in line with long sides of adjacent silicon solar cells overlapping and conductively bonded directly to each other to electrically connect the silicon solar cells in series;
a first solar cell located at an intermediate position along a first one of the super cells in a first one of the rows of super cells;
a hidden tap contact pad located on a back surface of the first solar cell; and
a second solar cell in the first super cell, the second solar cell not having a hidden tap contact pad on its back surface;
wherein the hidden tap contact pad on the back surface of the first solar cell is electrically connected to least a third solar cell located in a second one of the rows of super cells;
wherein the hidden tap contact pad on the back surface of the first solar cell does not conduct current if all solar cells in the solar module are operating normally;
wherein no portion of the front surface of the first solar cell overlying the hidden tap contact pad on the back surface of the first solar cell is occupied by contact pads or any other interconnect features; and
wherein the first solar cell has a larger light collection area than does the second solar cell, the larger light collection area of the first solar cell compensating for reduced light conversion efficiency of the first solar cell in the region of the first solar cell overlying the hidden tap contact pad and thereby matching current generated in the first solar cell to current generated in the second solar cell.

2. The solar module of claim 1 , comprising an electrical interconnect bonded to the hidden tap contact pad and electrically interconnecting the hidden tap contact pad to the third solar cell, wherein the electrical interconnect does not substantially span the length of the first solar cell and a back surface metallization pattern on the first solar cell provides a conductivity path to the hidden tap contact pad having a sheet resistance less than or equal to about 5 Ohms per square.

3. The solar module of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of super cells are arranged in three or more parallel rows spanning the width of the solar module perpendicular to the rows, and the hidden tap contact pad is electrically connected to a hidden contact pad on at least one solar cell in each of the rows of super cells to electrically connect the rows of super cells in parallel, and at least one bus connection to at least one of the hidden tap contact pads or to an interconnect between hidden tap contact pads connects to a bypass diode or other electronic device.

4. The solar module of claim 1 , comprising a flexible electrical interconnect conductively bonded to the hidden tap contact pad to electrically connect it to the third solar cell, wherein:
the portion of the flexible electrical interconnect conductively bonded to the hidden tap contact pad is ribbon-like, formed from copper, and has a thickness perpendicular to the surface of the solar cell to which it is bonded of less than or equal to about 50 microns; and
the conductive bond between the hidden tap contact pad and the flexible electrical interconnect forces the flexible electrical interconnect to withstand a mismatch in thermal expansion between the first solar cell and the flexible interconnect, and to accommodate relative motion between the first solar cell and the second solar cell resulting from thermal expansion, for a temperature range of about −40° C. to about 180° C. without damaging the solar module.

5. The solar module of claim 1 , wherein any area of the front surface of the first solar cell which is not overlapped by a portion of an adjacent solar cell in the first super cell is not occupied by contact pads or any other interconnect features.

6. The solar module of claim 1 , wherein in each super cell most of the cells do not have hidden tap contact pads.

7. The solar module of claim 1 , arranged with an end portion overlapping and electrically connected to an end portion of another solar module.

Assignees

• Sunpower Corp

Inventors

• Morad Ratson
• Almogy Gilad
• Suez Itai
• Hummel Jean
• Beckett Nathan
• Lin Yafu
• Maydan Dan
• Gannon John

Classifications

• H01L31/044

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/167

  Electricity · mapped topic

• Y02E10/50

  Photovoltaic [PV] energy · CPC title

• H01L31/02002

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/02013

  Electricity · mapped topic