WO2008057687A2 - Pyramidal three-dimensional thin-film solar cells - Google Patents
Pyramidal three-dimensional thin-film solar cells Download PDFInfo
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- WO2008057687A2 WO2008057687A2 PCT/US2007/080659 US2007080659W WO2008057687A2 WO 2008057687 A2 WO2008057687 A2 WO 2008057687A2 US 2007080659 W US2007080659 W US 2007080659W WO 2008057687 A2 WO2008057687 A2 WO 2008057687A2
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- Prior art keywords
- solar cell
- pyramidal
- silicon
- pyramid
- film solar
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Classifications
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- H01L31/056—Optical elements directly associated or integrated with the PV cell, e.g. light-reflecting means or light-concentrating means the light-reflecting means being of the back surface reflector [BSR] type
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- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L31/00—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof
- H01L31/18—Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment of these devices or of parts thereof
- H01L31/1892—Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment of these devices or of parts thereof methods involving the use of temporary, removable substrates
- H01L31/1896—Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment of these devices or of parts thereof methods involving the use of temporary, removable substrates for thin-film semiconductors
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L31/00—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof
- H01L31/04—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof adapted as photovoltaic [PV] conversion devices
- H01L31/042—PV modules or arrays of single PV cells
- H01L31/048—Encapsulation of modules
-
- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
- Y02B10/00—Integration of renewable energy sources in buildings
- Y02B10/10—Photovoltaic [PV]
-
- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
- Y02E10/00—Energy generation through renewable energy sources
- Y02E10/50—Photovoltaic [PV] energy
- Y02E10/52—PV systems with concentrators
Definitions
- This disclosure relates in general to the field of photovoltaics and solar cells, and more particularly to three- dimensional (3-D) Thin-Film Solar Cells (TFSCs) and methods for manufacturing same. Even more particularly, the presently disclosed subject matter relates to pyramidal 3-D TFSCs and methods for manufacturing same .
- the sun provides more energy to the earth in one hour than the annual energy consumption of the entire world. Much of the earth's surface receives a significant amount of annual sun-hours which may be effectively harnessed for clean and secure electricity generation. A key driver for this market pull is a rising public awareness of environmentally-benign technologies.
- the solar photovoltaic electricity generation which currently accounts for less than 0.1% of the global electricity generation, may be substantially expanded if it achieves cost parity with conventional grid electricity.
- costs of solar cells and modules typically expressed as $/W p
- grid-tied solar photovoltaic applications are gaining acceptance at an accelerated pace, making them an attractive option for significant proliferation in electricity generation.
- crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers may serve as the basis for solar cell formation (currently accounting for more than 90% of the solar PV market) .
- thin-film technologies using silicon and other semiconductor absorber materials may offer significant cost advantages compared to crystalline silicon wafer-based solar cells.
- These different approaches are at opposite ends of the price-performance scale.
- Crystalline silicon wafers offer higher performance, but at higher costs (due to the relatively high cost of starting monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon wafers) .
- Thin-film technologies may offer lower manufacturing costs, but typically at lower performance levels (i.e., lower efficiencies) . For both approaches, the price-per-watt typically increases as cell efficiencies rise (due to higher material and/or manufacturing costs ) .
- crystalline silicon (c- Si) wafer solar cell industry has been to scale down wafer thicknesses to below 200 microns (in order to reduce the amount of silicon material in grams used per watt of solar cell rated peak power) .
- monocrystalline silicon wafer solar cells are projected to scale down to a thickness of roughly 120 microns by 2012, from a current wafer thickness of roughly 200 microns.
- Multicrystalline silicon wafer solar cells are projected to scale down to a thickness of roughly 180 microns by 2012, from a current average wafer thickness of roughly 260 microns.
- This wafer thickness reduction presents additional challenges related to mechanical rigidity, manufacturing yield, and solar cell efficiency.
- crystalline silicon (c-Si) technology still dominates the solar cell market, mainly due to higher efficiencies and synergies with the established microelectronics industry and supply chain.
- c-Si accounts for slightly over 90% of the solar cell market (95% when ribbon silicon is included) .
- crystalline silicon solar cells have achieved a 20% cost reduction for each doubling of cumulative global cell production (measured in megawatts or MW P and gigawatts or GW P ) . It is projected that through innovative cost reduction and efficiency enhancement methods, the cost of electricity derived from grid-connected rooftop solar photovoltaic modules may become comparable to the cost of electricity purchased from the utility grid in five to ten years.
- a 2005 survey of the commercially available monocrystalline silicon and multicrystalline silicon solar modules reports the solar module efficiencies then in the range of 9.1% to 16.1%, with a median efficiency value of about 12.5%.
- Commercial crystalline silicon modules usually show a rapid initial efficiency degradation of 1% to 3% (relative) due to various effects, including photodegradation effects in wafered solar cells (e.g., wafer minority carrier lifetime degradation) .
- Monocrystalline silicon wafer solar cell efficiencies are projected to increase to roughly 20.5% by 2012, from a current efficiency of roughly 16.5% (leading-edge commercially available monocrystalline silicon solar cell and solar module efficiencies are currently about 21.5% and 18%, respectively) .
- Multicrystalline silicon wafer solar cell efficiencies are projected to increase to roughly 18% by 2012, from a current efficiency level of roughly 15.5%.
- the cost associated with wire saws, amounting to about $0.25/W p for current silicon solar cells provides another wafer-related cost component for silicon wafer solar cells.
- innovative and cost-effective technologies that eliminate the kerf losses associated with sawing and slicing should further facilitate silicon solar cell cost reductions. It is projected that the wafer-based crystalline silicon solar module manufacturing cost (which is currently on the order of $2.10 per watt to more than $2.70 per watt) may be reduced to the range of roughly $1.50/W p to $1.80/W p by the year 2012, in part due to wafer sawing kerf loss reduction to roughly 130 microns by 2012 from the current value of roughly 200 microns.
- the overall cost reductions for wafer-based crystalline silicon solar cells may come from various sources including: lower cost polysilicon feedstock, thinner wafers, higher cell-level efficiencies, reduced wafer sawing kerf losses, and increased economy of scale or manufacturing volume.
- any cost-effective, high- efficiency, innovative silicon solar cell technology which enables a substantial reduction of the silicon material consumption (e.g., wafer or film thickness) per W p of cell power compared to the above-mentioned current and projected 2009-2010 numbers may offer significant promise as a viable commercial solar cell technology for solar photovoltaic applications (e.g., residential, commercial, and industrial rooftop as well as large-scale centralized utilities electrical power generation applications) .
- Higher solar cell efficiencies have favorable effects on the entire solar cell value chain and levelized cost of energy (LCOE in $/kWh) due to reduced material consumption and cost as well as reduced balance-of-system (BOS) costs (e.g., area-related solar module installation and inverter costs) .
- BOS balance-of-system
- the current mainstream commercial crystalline solar cells provide efficiencies on the order of 14% to 17%. It is expected that the projected crystalline silicon solar cell efficiencies in commercial solar cells may approach around 19% and 17% for monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon solar cells, respectively, by the year 2009.
- a key area for new solar cell business opportunities is development of innovative cell structures and simplified process flows which may drive efficiencies up while lowering overall solar cell and module manufacturing costs.
- alternative (e.g., thin-film PV) approaches to succeed over the mainstream wafer-based crystalline silicon solar cell technologies they should provide higher efficiencies at even lower manufacturing costs compared to the projected efficiency and cost numbers for the mainstream wafer-based crystalline silicon solar cells when the new technology is fully commercialized.
- Reduced fab setup and operation costs would further facilitate global proliferation of cost- effective solar modules, enabling construction of a multitude of very affordable modest-volume fabs (in contrast to having to set up very expensive high-volume fabs in order to achieve sufficient economy of scale for manufacturing cost reduction) .
- an innovative solar cell technology that meets the above-mentioned criteria for cost-effective, modest-volume fabs (i.e., meeting the LCOE roadmap requirements even at modest production volumes in low-cost fabs set up for simplified solar cell processing) , may also be applicable to very-high-volume (e.g., greater than 100 MW P ) solar fabs.
- very-high-volume e.g., greater than 100 MW P
- Such solar photovoltaic fabs can take further advantage of the economies of scale associated with increased volume.
- TFSC Thin-film solar cell
- amorphous silicon, CdTe, and CIGS require little absorber material (usually much less than 10 microns in thickness) to absorb typical standard "Air Mass 1.5" (AM-I.5) solar illumination due to absorption bands that are well matched to the solar spectrum.
- the TFSC absorber material may be deposited on inexpensive substrates such as glass or flexible metallic or non-metallic substrates.
- TFSCs typically offer low cost, reduced module weight, reduced materials consumption, and a capability for using flexible substrates, but are usually much lower in efficiency (e.g., usually 5% to 12%) .
- Prior art FIGURE 1 shows process flow 10 for fabricating c-Si TFSCs using planar silicon thin-film absorber layers produced by epitaxial silicon.
- This prior art TFSC fabrication process flow uses several shadow mask process steps to form the cell structure.
- the cell absorber is simply a thin planar film of c-Si formed by silicon epitaxial growth processing.
- the cell uses frontside silicon texturing to improve light trapping and a detached rear aluminum mirror to improve the cell efficiency.
- Step 12 starts with single-crystal p + CZ silicon.
- Step 14 involves electrochemical HF etching of silicon to form 2-layer porous silicon comprising a 1 micron top layer with 20% porosity and a 200 nanometer rear layer with greater than 50% porosity.
- Step 16 involves a hydrogen (H 2 ) anneal at 1100°C for 30 minutes.
- Step 18 involves epitaxial silicon growth at 1100°C using trichlorosilane or SiHCl3
- Step 20 involves frontside surface texturing by wet KOH etching to form upright surface pyramids.
- Step 22 involves the first shadow mask process, with LPCVD silicon nitride (SiN x ) deposition through a shadow mask to define emitter diffusion windows.
- Step 24 involves solid source phosphorus diffusion at 830°C (to achieve 80 ⁇ /square for the n + doped junction) .
- Step 26 involves the second shadow mask process, with frontside metallization (titanium/Pd/silver grid) by evaporation through shadow mask.
- Step 28 involves emitter surface passivation by hydrogenated PVD or PECVD SiN x .
- Step 30 involves contact frontside busbar by a conductive adhesive.
- Step 32 involves gluing the cell frontside to MgF 2 -coated glass using clear glue.
- Step 34 involves separating the cell from silicon wafer by mechanical stress.
- Step 36 involves the third shadow mask process, with backside aluminum metallization using evaporation through shadow mask.
- step 38 involves attaching an aluminum reflector at 200 micron spacing from the cell backside.
- Prior art FIGURE 2 shows another process flow method 40 for fabrication of solar cells on silicon wafers with self- aligned selective emitter and metallization.
- Step 42 uses laser processing to pattern the top cell dielectric layer while melting the underlying silicon to form the heavily- doped n ++ emitter contact diffusion regions (after formation of the lightly diffused selective emitter regions by rapid thermal annealing).
- Step 42 starts with single-crystal p-type silicon.
- Step 44 involves saw damage removal etch and anisotropic texturing etch in dilute NaOH at 90 °C.
- Step 46 involves spin-on application and drying of phosphorus diffusion source.
- Step 48 involves rapid thermal annealing to form lightly diffused emitter (80 to 200 ⁇ /square) .
- Step 50 involves application of backside metal contact by vacuum evaporation or screen printing of aluminum or silver/aluminum alloy, followed by drying.
- Step 52 involves backside metal sintering/firing (e.g., at 820°C in oxygen/nitrogen) for a screen-printed contact (fires the metal paste while oxidizing the dielectric to raise its resistance to the metal plating solution) .
- Step 54 involves laser processing to pattern the top dielectric layer while melting the underlying silicon to form the n ++ contact diffusion region.
- Step 56 involves dilute HF etch to prepare metal plating surface.
- Step 58 involves electroless nickel plating at 90°C for five minutes.
- Step 60 involves nickel sintering at 350°C to 450°C (in nitrogen, argon, or forming gas) .
- Step 62 involves an additional 2 minutes of nickel plating followed by long electroless copper plating to form thick high-conductivity copper film.
- Step 64 involves flash immersion silver (silver) deposition on copper surface.
- step 66 involves edged junction isolation (e.g., using laser grooving, edge cleavage, or plasma etching) .
- edged junction isolation e.g., using laser grooving, edge cleavage, or plasma etching.
- the minimum crystalline silicon layer thickness may be on the order of at least 10 microns (so that the texturing process does not break through any portions of the crystalline silicon layer) .
- substantially reduced mean optical path lengths in thin planar crystalline silicon films result in reduced photon absorption, particularly for photons with energies near the infrared bandgap of silicon (800 to 1100 nanometers), resulting in reduced solar cell quantum efficiency (reduced short-circuit current or J sc ) . This results in serious degradation of the solar cell efficiency due to reduced cell quantum efficiency and reduced J sc .
- a solar light beam impacting the cell at a near-normal angle would have an effective path length equal to the film thickness, far too short for the solar radiation photons with energies near the infrared bandgap of silicon (i.e., with wavelengths of roughly 800 to 1100 nanometers) to be absorbed effectively in the silicon thin film.
- a reduction of the active cell silicon thickness to below roughly 50 microns results in appreciable reduction of J sc and the resulting solar cell efficiency, with this degradation effect rapidly accelerating when the silicon film thickness is reduced below roughly 20 microns.
- a co-planar thin crystalline silicon film may also require effective light trapping using both top surface texturing and rear surface back reflection of the light exiting the back surface of the crystalline silicon film in order to create effective optical path lengths equal to a large multiple of the crystalline silicon film thickness.
- the prior art technologies using this approach mostly use either back reflection through internal reflection of the light at the crystalline silicon film/silicon substrate, or reflection from a blanket backside contact (such as a back surface field aluminum contact/mirror) .
- the back reflectance provided by these techniques may not be great (e.g., roughly 70% effective near-IR rear reflectance) , constraining the performance gain that would have otherwise been achieved by an optimal back reflector.
- the problem with this approach is that the primary incident beam always passes the crystalline silicon film only once. Any subsequent second passes of the primary incident beam photons are dependent on the back surface reflection .
- One approach is to grow and retain the thin epitaxial film on a relatively low-cost (e.g., metallurgical- grade) silicon substrate (over which the epitaxial layer is grown) ; however, this approach suffers from some inherent problems constraining the ultimate solar cell efficiency.
- a relatively low-cost silicon substrate over which the epitaxial layer is grown
- Another approach is to release or lift off the epitaxial silicon film from its (reusable) parent silicon substrate and subsequently place it on a cheaper non-silicon support or handle substrate to provide mechanical strength through the solar cell process flow.
- This approach may suffer from any thermal coefficient of expansion (TCE) mismatch between the support/handle substrate and silicon film during any high- temperature oxidation and anneal processes, as well as potential contamination of the thin epitaxial silicon film from the non- silicon support substrate (both creating possible manufacturing yield and performance/efficiency degradation problems) .
- TCE thermal coefficient of expansion
- the cost of the monocrystalline silicon film growth process using silicon epitaxy, particularly for thicker epitaxial films with thicknesses in excess of 30 microns is an additional issue which should be addressed.
- Using a relatively small epitaxial film thickness may lower the cost of epitaxy to an attractive range.
- thinner co- planar (flat) epitaxial films e.g., in the range of much less than 30 microns
- Effective light trapping is essential for enhanced thin-film c-Si solar cell efficiencies.
- the requirement for effective light trapping is based on a combination of front surface texturing and back surface mirror, while achieving sufficiently low surface recombination velocities (for high cell efficiencies) . This is very difficult to achieve in the co- planar (flat) c-Si thin film solar cells.
- High-performance c-Si thin-film solar cells require some patterning steps or patterned processing steps (e.g., for formation of selective emitter, frontside emitter or backside emitter wrap-through metallization contacts, backside base metallization contacts, etc.) .
- These patterning steps are usually achieved using photolithography, screen printing, and/or shadow-mask deposition (e.g., shadow-mask sputtering or evaporation) processes.
- the use of photolithography and/or screen printing and/or shadow-mask deposition patterning steps usually increases the manufacturing process flow complexity and cost, and may also detrimentally impact the fabrication yield as well as the ultimate achievable solar cell efficiency.
- pyramidal three-dimensional thin-film solar cells (3-D TFSCs) are provided.
- the pyramidal 3-D TFSCs of the disclosed subject matter substantially eliminate or reduce disadvantages and problems associated with previously developed TFSCs, both in terms of efficiency and manufacturing cost.
- a pyramidal 3-D TFSC comprising a pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate, wherein said pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate comprises a plurality of pyramid-shaped unit cells .
- a pyramidal 3-D TFSC comprising a pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate, wherein said pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate comprises a plurality of unit cells with pyramid- shaped cavities.
- the pyramidal 3-D TFSCs may be mounted on a rear mirror for improved light trapping and conversion efficiency.
- the pyramidal 3-D TFSC comprises a pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate with emitter junction regions and doped base regions.
- the pyramidal 3-D TFSC further includes emitter metallization regions and base metallization regions.
- the pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate comprises a plurality of pyramid-shaped unit cells.
- the disclosed subject matter includes a pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate made of silicon, and even more specifically made of crystalline silicon.
- the disclosed subject matter includes a pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate with a pyramid-array design, and even more specifically, a hexagonal-pyramid design or a polygon-pyramid design, among others.
- the disclosed subject matter includes pyramidal 3-D TFSC with an integrated rear mirror or a detached rear mirror.
- FIGURE 1 shows a prior art process flow for fabricating crystalline silicon (c-Si) thin-film solar cells (TFSCs) using planar silicon thin-film absorber layers produced by silicon epitaxy;
- FIGURE 2 shows a prior art process flow for fabrication of solar cells on silicon wafers including self-aligned selective emitter and metallization
- FIGURE 3 summarizes the key process steps eliminated by the current disclosure, compared to the prior art
- FIGURE 4 provides an overview of the 3-D TFSC substrate and solar cell fabrication process flow;
- FIGURE 5 shows a top view of a honeycomb hexagonal- pyramid array design TFSC substrate, with a peripheral planar silicon frame;
- FIGURE 6 shows a top view of an alternative honeycomb hexagonal-pyramid array design TFSC substrate, with a larger thickness peripheral planar frame;
- FIGURES 7 and 8 show the Y-Y and Z-Z cross- sectional axes on an embodiment of a hexagonal-pyramidal (honeycomb) 3-D TFSC substrate;
- FIGURE 9 shows a YY cross-sectional views after self-aligned formation of the emitter and base contacts and solar cell interconnects
- FIGURE 10 shows a view of a 3-D self-supporting hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate with thick silicon frame, compared to the thin frame shown in FIGURE 9;
- FIGURE 11 summarizes the high-level process flow and the competitive advantages of the current disclosure, compared to the prior art;
- FIGURE 12 shows a Y-Y cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a template
- FIGURE 13 shows a 3-D view of a single unit cell in a hexagonal-pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrate
- FIGURE 14 shows a schematic ZZ cross-sectional-view of an embodiment of a 3-D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate
- FIGURE 15 shows a schematic YY cross-sectional-view of an embodiment of a 3-D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate
- FIGURE 16 shows a YY cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a 3-D self-supporting hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate with thin square-shaped silicon frame
- FIGURE 17 shows a YY cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a 3-D self-supporting hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate with thick square-shaped silicon frame
- FIGURES 18 through 20 describe process flows for fabrication of a 3-D TFSC using fire-through metallization
- FIGURES 21 through 25 describe process flows for fabrication of a 3-D TFSC using selective plating metallization;
- FIGURE 26 shows a schematic view of a double-sided coater setup for self-aligned application (coating) of dopant liquid or paste layers on 3-D TFSC substrate top ridges and rear surface or ridges by roller coating and in-line curing of the applied liquid/paste layers (shown in conjunction with an integrated belt-driven process equipment) ;
- FIGURE 27 shows a view of an alternative spray coater and curing setup to perform the same processes as the roller coater and curing setup of FIGURE 26;
- FIGURE 28 shows a view of another alternative setup design using liquid-dip coating or liquid-transfer coating to perform the same processes as the roller coater and curing setup of FIGURE 26 and the spray coater and curing setup of FIGURE 27;
- FIGURE 29 shows a cross-sectional view of a 3-D substrate (showing one of the hexagonal-pyramid cells) after the above-mentioned doping process step;
- FIGURES 30 shows a YY cross-sectional view after self-aligned formation of the emitter and base contacts and solar cell interconnects;
- FIGURES 31 and 32 show YY cross-sectional views of the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid solar cells (showing a single hexagonal-pyramid unit cell and several adjacent unit cells, respectively) after completion of the solar cell fabrication process and after soldering the rear base contacts to the rear cell mirror (and base interconnect) plate;
- FIGURE 33 shows a YY cross-sectional view of the 3- D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate (showing one pyramid unit cell) after self-aligned roller coating of n-type dopant paste on the frontside honeycomb ridges, and after curing and furnace annealing to form the selective emitter regions and heavily-doped emitter contact regions;
- FIGURE 34 is similar to FIGURE 33, except FIGURE 34 roller coating of a p-type dopant layer and subsequent curing and anneal;
- FIGURE 35 shows a cross-sectional view similar to the view shown in FIGURE 29. However, in the embodiment shown in FIGURE 35 there is only coating of n-type dopant paste on the frontside honeycomb ridges;
- FIGURE 36 shows a YY cross-sectional view of a 3-D hexagonal-pyramid substrate after self-aligned formation of the frontside solid dopant source layer and selective emitter, while FIGURE 37 shows a ZZ cross-sectional view;
- FIGURE 38 shows a YY cross-sectional view of a 3-D hexagonal-pyramid substrate after self-aligned formation of the frontside solid dopant source layer, selective emitter, as well as the self-aligned frontside emitter and rear base contacts, while FIGURE 39 shows a ZZ cross-sectional view;
- FIGURE 40 shows a schematic quasi-3-D view of a hexagonal-pyramid unit cell after formation of the self- aligned frontside emitter contact and the rear base contact;
- FIGURE 41 shows a view of an alternative embodiment of solar cell assembly on the rear mirror and base interconnect (the first embodiment shown in FIGURE 32) ;
- FIGURE 42 shows a top view of a 3-D TFSC substrate with a square-pyramid unit cell structure;
- FIGURE 43 shows a top view of a 3-D TFSC substrate with a triangular-pyramid unit cell structure
- FIGURE 44 shows a top view of a 3-D TFSC substrate with an orthogonal V-groove unit cell structure
- FIGURE 45 shows alternative cross sectional views of the 3-D TFSC substrate with an orthogonal V-groove unit cell structure, shown in FIGURE 44;
- FIGURE 46 shows a top view of a 3-D TFSC substrate with an alternative orthogonal diagonal V-groove unit cell structure
- FIGURE 47 shows alternative cross sectional views of the 3-D TFSC substrate with an orthogonal diagonal V-groove unit cell structure, shown in FIGURE 46;
- FIGURES 48 and 49 outline embodiments of process flows for fabrication of a template using either direct laser micromachining or photolithography patterning;
- FIGURES 50 through 53 show embodiments of process flows for fabrication of pyramidal 3-D TFSC substrates;
- FIGURE 54 illustrates a first embodiment of a process flow for fabrication of solar modules with top protective glass plates and embedded PCBs of this disclosure (corresponding to the solar module structure of FIGURE 55 with a PCB and a TFSC mounted on the PCB) ;
- FIGURE 55 shows a cross-sectional view of a solar module (solar panel) structure (resulting from the process flow described in FIGURE 54) ;
- FIGURE 56 outlines an alternative embodiment of an assembly process flow for fabrication of solar modules
- FIGURE 57 shows a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of a solar module structure (resulting from the process flow described in FIGURE 56) ;
- FIGURE 58 shows a view of a solar cell integrated or assembled in building windows;
- FIGURE 59 shows a view of a representative example of series connections of TFSCs of this disclosure in a solar module assembly
- FIGURE 60 shows a view of the frontside layout of the printed-circuit board (PCB) used for solar module assembly;
- PCB printed-circuit board
- FIGURE 61 shows a top view of the backside layout of the printed-circuit board (PCB) used for solar module assembly, showing the series connection of the TFSCs;
- PCB printed-circuit board
- FIGURE 62 shows a backside view of the copper pattern on the PCB and is essentially similar to FIGURE 61;
- FIGURE 63A shows an enlarged top view of the pattern on the frontside of the solar module printed-circuit board (PCB);
- FIGURE 63B shows an enlarged top view of the interconnect pattern on the backside of the solar module printed-circuit board (PCB) ;
- FIGURE 64 shows various schematic views of a thick silicon frame, silicon frame slivers, and a representative method to produce (e.g., cut) silicon slivers;
- FIGURE 65 (similar to FIGURE 15) is provided for reference for calculations;
- FIGURE 66 shows the ratio of the hexagonal-pyramid sidewall area to the planar hexagonal base area (S hp /S hb ) versus the height-to-base diagonal diameter ratio (H/d) of the hexagonal-pyramid unit cell;
- FIGURES 67 and 68 shows calculated frontside aperture angles of the solar cell hexagonal-pyramid unit cell versus the height-to-base diagonal diameter ratio (H/d) of the hexagonal-pyramid unit cell;
- FIGURE 69 is provided for reference for calculations;
- FIGURES 70 and 71 show the ratio of the cone-shaped unit cell sidewall area to the planar circular base area (S cp /S cb ) versus the height-to-base diameter ratio (H/D) of the cone-shaped unit cell and calculated frontside aperture angle of the solar cell cone-shaped unit cell (approximation for hexagonal-pyramid units cells) versus the height-to-base diameter ratio (H/D) of the cone-shaped unit cell;
- FIGURE 72 may be used for reference with an approximate analytical calculation of the TFSC interconnect ohmic losses, assuming a circular substrate with hexagonal- pyramid array of unit cells;
- FIGURES 73 and 74 plot the projected (calculated) interconnect-related solar cell power losses as a function of the ratio of the hexagonal-pyramid height to diagonal base dimension (H/d) for two different emitter interconnect area coverage ratios on the top of the 3-D solar cell substrate; while FIGURES 73 through 84 show plots for various values of Rthm and L/H.
- DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS [0097] Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated in the drawings, like numbers being used to refer to like and corresponding parts of the various drawings.
- the innovative solar cell designs and technologies of the current disclosure are based on the use of a three-dimensional (3-D) , self-supporting, doped (in one embodiment, in-situ-doped) semiconductor thin film, deposited on and released from a reusable crystalline (embodiments include monocrystalline or multicrystalline silicon) semiconductor template.
- a preferred semiconductor material for the 3-D TFSC substrate is crystalline silicon (c-Si) , although other semiconductor materials may also be used.
- c-Si crystalline silicon
- One embodiment uses monocrystalline silicon as the thin film semiconductor material.
- Other embodiments use multicrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, microcrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, porous silicon, and/or a combination thereof.
- the designs here are also applicable to other semiconductor materials such as germanium, silicon germanium, silicon carbide, a crystalline compound semiconductor, or a combination thereof. Additional applications include copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride semiconductor thin films.
- CGS copper indium gallium selenide
- cadmium telluride semiconductor thin films include copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride semiconductor thin films.
- the 3-D TFSC designs and production technologies as well as associated module structures and assembly approaches of this disclosure effectively overcome the above-mentioned problems and challenges and enable cost-reduced fabrication of very-high-efficiency solar cells and modules using self- aligned cell process flows without the use of any photolithography patterning or screen printing or shadow-mask deposition process steps during cell fabrication (i.e., during 3-D TFSC substrate and cell fabrication after fabrication of the reusable 3-D template) .
- the 3-D TFSC technologies of this disclosure are based on the formation of a 3-D pyramid-array TFSC substrate structure on a low-cost reusable template and its subsequent release and lift-off from the template to form a free-standing, self-supporting 3-D thin-film semiconductor substrate structure.
- the current disclosure combines the benefits of TFSC fabrication on a proven high-efficiency crystalline silicon (c-Si) platform.
- the 3-D c-Si TFSC designs and technologies of this disclosure enable significant advancements in the areas of c-Si solar cell and module efficiency enhancement as well as manufacturing cost reduction. Based on innovative thin-film process steps, dependence on an expensive and constrained silicon wafer supply-chain is eliminated.
- Some of the unique advantages of the cells designs and technologies of this disclosure which enable achieving ultra-high-efficiency at reduced manufacturing cost are substantial decoupling from the traditional solar PV silicon supply chain, performance enhancement, cost reduction, and reliability improvement.
- the disclosed subject matter improves solar cell efficiency by using a 3-D c-Si film as an absorber layer in conjunction with highly efficient light trapping.
- the crystalline silicon absorber layer leverages known solar cell manufacturing techniques and supply chain, while reducing absorber layer thickness (e.g., reduced by a factor of ten or more compared to silicon wafers used for wafer-based solar cells) .
- the disclosed method and system eliminates or substantially reduces photo-degradation and enhances open- circuit voltage (V 00 ) of cells.
- the disclosed method and system provides efficient frontside and rear side light-trapping in conjunction with a highly reflective rear mirror for maximum absorption of incident solar flux.
- the disclosed method and system provides a selective emitter to enhance blue response and external quantum efficiency, with minimal shadowing of the cell and reduced ohmic losses due to a unique folded emitter metallization contact design and improved module assembly.
- Manufacturing cost is reduced by decreasing silicon usage (by a significant factor, e.g., 3x to over 1Ox) , with thinner deposited c-Si films also reducing the finished solar module energy payback time to less than 1 to 2 years. Manufacturing cost is further reduced by eliminating wire sawing and related kerf losses associated with mainstream solar cell wafer manufacturing technology. Manufacturing cost is still further reduced by using self-aligned processing without any lithography or patterning steps used during the substrate and cell fabrication process flow, and a reduced number of fabrication process steps, with improved yield and cycle time. Production cost is still further reduced by using a simplified interconnection and cell-module assembly process and lightweight monolithic modules.
- Operational reliability is improved by using thinner silicon films, eliminating photo-degradation and reducing temperature coefficients. Operational reliability is further improved by using a simple distributed high- conductance electrical interconnection, minimizing field failures. Operational reliability is still further improved by eliminating module glass cover (for glassless module assembly) , thus reducing cost and facilitating field installation and operation. Operational reliability is still further improved by reducing the number of manufacturing process steps and process variations using in-line manufacturing process control. [00104] The current disclosure reduces the solar module cost per watt for the user (by at least 30% to 50%) and cuts balance-of-system (BOS) and installation costs for the integrators and installers.
- BOS balance-of-system
- the current disclosure reduces the module integration and installation cost and installed solar cell system cost per W p for the user, thereby lowering finished system cost per W p .
- the current disclosure increases module efficiency, with higher module efficiency resulting in lower BOS cost.
- the lower installed solar cell system cost results in reduction of the economic break-even time to a lower fraction of the system lifetime, from roughly 1/2 to 1/3 for current best-of-breed c-Si solar cell systems to less than 1/4 to 1/8 for the embodiments of this disclosure.
- the current disclosure reduces energy pay-back time (EPBT) from 3 to 7 years for best-of-breed c-Si solar cell systems to less than 1 to 2 years for the embodiments of this disclosure.
- EBT energy pay-back time
- Reduced EPBT substantially increases the net lifetime energy output (in kWh) for field-installed modules.
- the cell designs and module assemblies of this disclosure also provide stable degradation-free field operation over an extended time (e.g., 30 to 40 year life of the module), further increasing the net lifetime electrical energy output.
- Module manufacturing costs are expected to be 30% to 65% lower than that of the leading high-performance c-Si solar cells/modules at the time of market entry. This may shorten the ROI break-even time for the users compared to the current industry roadmap and projections.
- the absorber silicon film thickness of the current disclosure may be a value in the range of roughly 1 to 30 microns, where a thinner silicon layer is preferred for less material consumption (in one embodiment, in the range of 1 to 10 microns) .
- the 3-D TFSC substrates of this disclosure consume substantially less silicon material than the state-of-the-art wafer-based c-Si solar cells.
- the self-supporting 3-D epitaxial silicon thin film is deposited on and released from a low-cost reusable crystalline (monocrystalline or multicrystalline) silicon substrate (template) .
- the template may be reused numerous times before being reconditioned or recycled.
- the template may even be chosen from the much lower cost metallurgical-grade c-Si since any metallic impurities are prevented from contaminating the 3-D crystalline silicon film.
- FIGURE 3 summarizes the overall crystalline solar cell fabrication process flow of prior art techniques and highlights the specific steps eliminated by the current disclosure, compared to the prior art.
- FIGURE 4 summarizes the overall cell and module fabrication process flow and the competitive advantages of the current disclosure, compared to the prior art.
- the current disclosure enables fabrication of 3-D TFSC substrates and 3-D TFSCs, thus, substantially reducing consumption of semiconductor absorber material (e.g., silicon) and the cell and module manufacturing costs.
- semiconductor absorber material e.g., silicon
- FIGURES show embodiments of 3-D TFSC substrate structures.
- the crystalline silicon film thickness is in the range of 2 to 30 microns, and preferably in the lower-end range of 2 to 10 microns.
- 3-D TFSC substrates are used to fabricate 3-D pyramidal TFSCs.
- FIGURE 5 shows a top view 100 of a honeycomb hexagonal-pyramid array design TFSC using a TFSC substrate 102, with a peripheral planar silicon frame 104.
- the design includes a periodic array of high-aspect-ratio (or low- aperture-angle) hexagonal-pyramid unit cells 106.
- frame length (S) 104 is 125 mm to over 200 mm.
- the top surface of the frame is also preferably used as the top solar cell interconnect (it is metallized along with the top honeycomb contacts, and is electrically connected to the honeycomb contacts) .
- the width 108 of the frame 104 is roughly 125 microns to 1 mm.
- the film thickness 110 of the TFSC substrate is roughly 2 to 30 microns, preferably 2 to 10 microns.
- there are millions (or as few as thousands) of these hexagonal-pyramid unit cells 106 form a large-area (e.g., 200 mm x 200 mm) TFSC substrate 102.
- FIGURE 6 shows a top view 120 of an alternative honeycomb hexagonal-pyramid array design TFSC substrate 102, with a larger thickness 108 peripheral planar silicon frame 104.
- FIGURES 7 and 8 the YY and ZZ axes are shown in FIGURES 7 and 8.
- FIGURE 7 shows a top view 130 of a regular (equilateral) hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSC substrate 102, formed using the process steps outlined above.
- Each hexagonal unit cell 106 contains hexagonal unit cell points (H 1 , H 2 , H 3 , H 4 , H 5 , and H 6 ) 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, and 142, with the bottom tip (which will form the back contact) of the hexagonal- pyramid shown as point 144.
- FIGURE 7 further shows the hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSC substrate sidewalls 146; the diagonal dimension of the unit cell hexagon (d) 148; and hexagonal unit cell horizontal distance (h) 150.
- the hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSC substrate sidewalls 146 are between 2 and 30 microns thick.
- FIGURE 8 shows a bottom view 160 of the TFSC substrate 102 shown in FIGURE 7. In this view, the hexagonal- pyramid rear (bottom) tips 144 are shown at the centers of the hexagons. The honeycomb hexagons are the bottom views of the top honeycomb ridges of the 3-D TFSC substrate.
- FIGURE 9 shows a view 170 of multiple unit cells
- FIGURE 10 shows a view 180 of a 3-D self-supporting hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate with thick silicon frame, compared to the thin frame shown in FIGURE 9.
- the thick frame may have a width of roughly 500 to 1000 microns and may be fused to a 3-D TFSC substrate 102 during the epitaxial silicon deposition process (by placing the thick silicon frame on the reusable silicon template) or after silicon epitaxy and 3-D substrate release (by e-beam welding) .
- FIGURE 11 provides an overview of the 3-D TFSC substrate and cell fabrication process flow. Focusing on the top of FIGURE 11 illustrating the 3-D TFSC substrate fabrication, note that the first step in this process flow uses a pre-fabricated template.
- the template with a prefabricated 3-D trench or groove pattern may be used for formation of 3-D TFSC substrates, which are then used in the formation of 3-D TFSCs, substantially eliminating or reducing disadvantages and problems associated with previously developed TFSCs and the wafer-based crystalline silicon cell technologies.
- the template is capable of being used numerous times (e.g., tens to hundreds of times) to fabricate numerous 3-D TFSC substrates before being reconditioned or recycled. In one embodiment, the template may be used hundreds of times to fabricate 3-D TFSC substrates before being recycled.
- FIGURE 12 shows a Y-Y cross-sectional view of a template 200 showing hexagonal-pyramid trenches 202 between posts 204, formed in the substrate fronstide 206 using the process flows described above.
- the bottom 208 of the trenches 202 connects to through-wafer backside, preferably small- diameter, holes 212 which connect to the template backside
- the holes 212 are 1 to 10 microns in diameter.
- the holes 210 are used for subsequent wet etching of the sacrificial layer and 3-D silicon film release and lift-off.
- the template 200 has dimensions of L 214 (in one embodiment, 0 to 25 microns although it may also be much larger up to several hundred microns), 3-D unit cell height H 216, pyramidal angle ⁇ 218, and unit cell aperture diameter h 20.
- a hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSC substrate (not shown) is fabricated by first forming a suitable relatively conformal thin sacrificial layer (in one embodiment, porous silicon) on the template, then filling in the trenches 202 between hexagonal-pyramid posts 206, and subsequently releasing the hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSC substrate by selectively etching the sacrificial layer (not shown) deposited between the hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSC substrate and the template.
- a suitable relatively conformal thin sacrificial layer in one embodiment, porous silicon
- FIGURES show embodiments of 3-D TFSC substrate structures.
- the crystalline silicon film thickness is in the range of 2 to 30 microns, and preferably in the lower-end range of 2 to 10 microns. This is substantially less (by a factor of roughly 2Ox to 10Ox) than the state-of-the-art silicon solar cell wafer thickness (roughly 200 microns) .
- FIGURE 13 shows a quasi 3-D view 230 of an individual hexagonal-pyramid unit cell 106 of the TFSC substrate 102 shown above.
- the top hexagonal opening of the unit cell 106 forms the frontside self-aligned interconnected contacts of the thin-film solar cell (TFSC) .
- W width
- H height
- FIGURE 14 shows a ZZ cross-sectional-view 240 of the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate 102, showing the hexagonal-pyramid top aperture angles ⁇ 242.
- the bottom tips 144 of the triangles are the rear tips of the hexagonal- pyramids (where the base contacts will be placed) .
- the solid line shows the 3-D TFSC substrate thin-film silicon layer, with thickness 110 (in one embodiment, roughly 1 to 25 microns thick) .
- FIGURE 15 shows a YY cross-sectional-view 250 of the hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate 102, showing the hexagonal- pyramid top aperture angles ⁇ 252.
- FIGURE 16 shows a YY cross-sectional view 270 (not to scale) of an embodiment of a 3-D self-supporting hexagonal- pyramid TFSC substrate 102 with thin square-shaped silicon frame 104 (like the frame 104 shown in FIGURE 5) , with thickness the same as the film thickness 110.
- the silicon frame width (W) 108 is between 50 and 250 microns.
- the width of the top hexagonal honeycomb silicon ridges 272 is preferably much smaller than h 150 and H 232. In one embodiment, the width of the top honeycomb ridges 272 is roughly 0.5 microns to less than 5 microns.
- FIGURE 17 shows a YY cross-sectional view 290 (not to scale) of an embodiment of a 3-D self-supporting hexagonal- pyramid TFSC substrate 102 with thicker square-shaped silicon frame 104 (like the frame 104 shown in FIGURE 6) .
- the thickness of the frame is not the same as the film thickness 110. Instead, the thick silicon frame may be roughly 100 to 500 microns thick.
- the silicon frame width (W) 108 is between 50 and 250 microns.
- the thick peripheral silicon frame may be preferably made of low-cost metallurgical-grade silicon and may be attached to the 3-D TFSC substrate using one of the following methods: (i) thick silicon frame placed on the reusable silicon template and fused to the 3-D thin-film silicon film during the epitaxial silicon growth process; (ii) e-beam welding of the 3-D TFSC substrate to the thick silicon frame (after lift-off/release of the 3-D TFSC substrate from the reusable silicon template) ; or (iii) thermal bonding (under clamping pressure) of the thick silicon frame to the 3-D TFSC substrate.
- the thick silicon frame maybe used for enhanced mechanical support and rigidity of the 3-D TFSC substrate.
- FIGURES illustrate embodiments of process flows using alternative methods of fire-through metallization and selective plating metallization. These process flows do not use any photolithography or screen printing processes.
- the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid structural design of the solar cell substrate enables self-aligned processing throughout the entire cell process flow.
- the emitter and base contacts and metallized regions cover relatively small fractions of the frontside emitter and backside base areas, respectively.
- selective emitter and base doping is achieved by self-aligned application of the n-type and p-type dopant pastes to the top and bottom of the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid substrate, preferably using double-sided roller coating method.
- the 3-D substrate is then cured and moves on to a belt furnace to form the n + selective emitter on the frontside and the p + ⁇ doped base on the rear side of the 3-D substrate.
- a preferred n-type dopant source is phosphorus and a preferred p-type dopant source is boron.
- FIGURES 18 through 20 describe process flows using fire-through metallization, while FIGURES 21 through 25 describe process flows using selective plating metallization.
- Process flow 400 shown in FIGURE 18 describes an embodiment using fire-through metallization, with a forming gas anneal (FGA) step after copper (Cu) or silver (Ag) plating.
- Step 402 starts with a p-type 3-D silicon TFSC substrate.
- Step 404 involves selectively coating the top portions of the hexagonal-pyramids (in one embodiment, the top 2 to 10 microns in height) with n-type liquid or paste dopant source.
- Coating is performed by self-aligned roller coating using dopant paste/liquid, or liquid-dip coating by dipping in a controlled liquid dopant source depth.
- the dopant layer is then dried/cured (250 0 C to 400 0 C or UV) .
- Step 406 involves formation of self-aligned emitter contacts.
- the bottom portions of the pyramid tips are selectively coated (in one embodiment, about 2 to 10 microns in height) with p-type liquid or paste dopant source.
- Coating is performed by self- aligned roller coating using dopant paste/liquid, or liquid- dip coating by dipping in a controlled liquid dopant source depth.
- the dopant layer is then dried/cured (250°C to 400 0 C or UV) .
- Step 408 involves self-aligned selective emitter formation, where the top n + p and n ++ p junctions and rear p + tips are concurrently formed by an anneal (e.g., 800 0 C to 950 0 C).
- the dopant layer drying and annealing may be performed sequentially in a single belt furnace.
- the substrate may be annealed face down on a heated planar surface, or with pairs of substrates in frontside face-to-face contact, in order to facilitate gas-phase doping formation of n + regions.
- step 410 Surface passivation and ARC
- the dopant source layer and native oxide are stripped (in one embodiment, using dilute HF) .
- Thin oxide is grown by steam oxidation (e.g., 3 to 10 nm @ 850 0 C to 950 0 C); and SiN x ARC is then deposited by PECVD. Both layers are formed on both silicon sides, with PECVD-SiN x also providing H passivation of silicon.
- step 412 Self-aligned metallization
- the top portions of the hexagonal-pyramids are selectively coated (to a height less than the dopant source) with metal (Ag) paste using self-aligned roller coating, then dried and cured.
- the bottom tips of the hexagonal-pyramids are then selectively coated on the rear side with metal (Al or Ag) paste by self- aligned roller coating, then dried and cured.
- step 414 Self-aligned metallization (firing) )
- the front (Ag) and rear (Al, Ag) metallized regions are formed by firing through the thermal oxide/PECVD SiN x layers.
- Step 416 involves an optional self-aligned metallization step, where an FGA is performed
- Step 418 involves an optional self-aligned metallization step, where Cu or Ag are selectively/concurrently deposited (e.g., 1 to 5 microns) on the metallized top honeycomb ridges and bottom hexagonal-pyramid tips by plating. Metallized regions are then flash coated with Ag.
- step 420 the solar cell backside metallized hexagonal-pyramid tips are soldered to a Cu or Ag mirror plate or foil (may be perforated) , then flash coated with Ag. The rear mirror also serves as the rear electrical connector.
- the solar cells can be packaged into solar modules/panels.
- FIGURE 19 An alternative fire-through metallization process flow 430 is described in FIGURE 19. Emitter contacts and interconnects are made on the top honeycomb ridges whereas the base contacts are made on rear hexagonal-pyramid tips. In this embodiment the rear base contact regions are heavily doped by Al during the fire-through process (no separate p + rear base doping used by boron dopant source) . Forming gas anneal (FGA) performed after Cu and/or Ag plating. Step 432 (providing the substrate) corresponds to step 402 in FIGURE 18; and step 434 (selectively coating the top portions) corresponds to step 404. However, step 406 (selective coating of bottom portions) is not performed next. Instead, subsequent steps 436 to 450 correspond to steps 408 to 422.
- FGA Forming gas anneal
- FIGURE 20 Another alternative fire-through metallization process flow 460 is described in FIGURE 20.
- the forming gas anneal (FGA) step is performed before Cu and/or Ag plating.
- steps 444 and 446 from FIGURE 19 are reversed, noted in steps 474 and 476 of FIGURE 20.
- FIGURES 21 through 25 describe process flows using selective plating metallization.
- Process flow 490 shown in FIGURE 21 describes an embodiment using selective plating metallization.
- Step 492 (providing a substrate) corresponds to step 402 in FIGURE 18;
- step 494 (selectively coating the top portions) corresponds to step 404;
- step 496 (selectively coating the bottom portions) corresponds to step 406;
- step 498 corresponds to step 408;
- step 500 corresponds to step 410.
- step 502 self- aligned metallization
- step 504 involves concurrently forming the front and rear metallized regions by a single plating process (e.g., Ag, Ni, Pt, Ti, Co, Ta) .
- Step 506 involves an optional self- aligned metallization step where a forming gas anneal (FGA) is performed (e.g., 300 to 450 0 C), to reduce front and rear interconnect resistance values and help with surface/bulk passivation.
- Step 508 involves self-aligned metallization where Cu or Ag is selectively/concurrently deposited (e.g., 1 to 5 microns) on the metallized top honeycomb ridges and bottom hexagonal-pyramid tips by plating.
- Step 510 (solder) and step 512 are the same as above.
- An alternative selective plating metallization process flow 520 is described in FIGURE 22. No p + dopant paste coating is used for rear base contact doping.
- the rear base p + contact doping is performed by Al doping in the base contact regions using an anneal process after rear base tip Al metallization using plating.
- Step 522 provisioning the substrate
- step 524 selective coating the top portions
- step 494 depositing the top portions
- step 496 selective coating of bottom portions
- step 526 self-aligned selective emitter
- step 528 Surface passivation and ARC
- step 530 self-aligned metallization
- step 532 the rear metallized regions are selectively formed by an Al rear plating process (e.g., dip plate the rear/backside only).
- metal Al (Ag, Ni) is selectively plated on front exposed honeycomb n ++ doped regions and rear Al-metallized regions.
- Step 536 involves performing an FGA (300 to 450 0 C) to form Al-doped rear p + tips. The FGA reduces front and rear interconnect resistance values and helps with surface/bulk passivation.
- Step 538 (plating) corresponds to step 508;
- step 540 soldder
- step 542 seed with packaging
- FIGURE 23 Another alternative selective plating metallization process flow 550 is described in FIGURE 23.
- no roller paste etching process is used here. Instead the process here uses selective etching of dopant source layers. Steps 552 (providing a substrate), step 554 (selectively coating the top portions) , and step 556 (selectively coating the bottom portions) correspond to steps 492 to 496 in FIGURE 21.
- Step 558 involves concurrently forming the top n + p and n ++ p junctions and rear p + tips by an anneal (e.g., 800 to 950C), sequentially first in an inert (Ar, N 2 ) and then oxidizing (steam) ambient to grow 5 to 50 nm of thermal oxide.
- the dopant layer drying and anneal may also be performed sequentially in a single belt furnace.
- Step 560 involves selectively etching the dopant source layers while removing only a small portion of oxide, using a wet etch with high etch selectivity compared to thermal oxide.
- Step 562 (plating) corresponds to step 504; and step 564 (plating) corresponds to step 508.
- Step 566 involves soldering (Pb-free solder) backside metallized hexagonal-pyramid tips to an Al mirror plate or foil (may be perforated), then flash coating with Ag.
- the rear mirror also serves as the rear electrical connector.
- Step 568 involves concurrently depositing ARC layer (e.g., low-temperature PECVD SiN x ) on both front and rear surfaces.
- the ARC layer may also include spectral down-conversion.
- the ARC layer also helps with additional H passivation. Note that the peripheries of frontside solar cell and rear mirror should be masked during PECVD to facilitate cell/module interconnects.
- Step 570 FGA
- step 572 packing
- FIGURE 24 Another alternative selective plating metallization process flow 580 is described in FIGURE 24. Compared to process flow 550 from FIGURE 23, this process uses only one high temperature (anneal and oxidation) process step. Steps 582 to 596 are the same as steps 552 to 566 in FIGURE 23. However, in step 598, an ARC layer (e.g., low temperature PECVD SiN x ) is deposited on solar cell front surface only.
- ARC layer e.g., low temperature PECVD SiN x
- Steps 600 and 602 are the same as steps 570 and 572 in FIGURE 23.
- FIGURE 25 Another alternative selective plating metallization process flow 610 is described in FIGURE 25. Like process flow 580 from FIGURE 24, this process uses only one high temperature (anneal and oxidation) process step. Steps 612 to 620 correspond to steps 582 to 590 from FIGURE 24. However, step 592 (plating) is not performed. Instead, only plating step 594 is performed, corresponding to step 622. Steps 624 to 630 correspond to steps 596 to 602 from FIGURE 24. [00134] The above process steps may be performed on integrated in-line process equipment.
- FIGURE 26 shows a view 640 of a setup for performing the two process steps of liquid/paste coating and UV or IR curing prior to furnace anneal, allowing for subsequent formation of selective emitter and base regions after anneal in an in-line diffusion furnace.
- This integrated in-line process equipment allows for self-aligned formation of dopant liquid or paste coating on the 3-D TFSC substrate top ridges and rear ridges by roller coating. Roller coating may be performed using an atmospheric-pressure, belt-driven coating and curing equipment integrated in line with a diffusion furnace.
- the top ridges are coated with n-type dopant liquid/paste; the rear ridges are coated with p-type dopant liquid/paste .
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 is shown moving in 644 on input conveyor belt 646.
- Multilayer materials may be coated on each side of the 3-D TFSC substrate by applying (or flowing) a different liquid or paste material to each roller on the top 648 and/or rear 652 set of rollers.
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 next moves into the curing area where the dopant liquid/paste layers are concurrently formed using a curing lamp 656 which uses IR or UV curing beams 658.
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 is next shown moving out 660 to the output conveyor belt 662, which may move the substrate 642 to an in-line diffusion furnace, where the n + and p + contacts and selective emitter regions are concurrently formed.
- a similar roller coater setup may be properly configured and used for applying metal liquid/paste coatings (e.g., silver and/or aluminum liquid or paste sources), curing the metal liquid/paste source, and performing subsequent thermal anneal in an in-line atmospheric furnace (resistively- heated or lam-heated furnace) for fire-through metallization in order to form the emitter and base contact metallization (and whenever applicable, also to form the aluminum-doped p ++ base contact regions) .
- FIGURE 27 shows a view 670 of an alternative setup design to perform the same processes as the roller coater/curing/furnace setup of FIGURE 26.
- the setup in FIGURE 27 may be used for self-aligned formation of dopant source liquid/paste coating on the 3-D TFSC substrate top ridges and rear ridges by angled spray coating.
- This setup also may utilize an in-line atmospheric-pressure coating and curing and diffusion equipment configuration which can be easily integrated with an in-line diffusion furnace.
- multilayer materials may be coated on each side of the substrate by using multiple sets of spray nozzles connected to different liquid sources (not shown here) and applying (or flowing) a different liquid source material to each nozzle on the top and/or rear set of spray nozzles. This is an alternative technique to the roller coating system shown in FIGURE 26.
- the top ridges are coated with n-type dopant liquid/paste (such as phosphorus) ; the rear ridges are coated with p-type dopant liquid/paste (such as boron) .
- n-type dopant liquid/paste such as phosphorus
- the rear ridges are coated with p-type dopant liquid/paste (such as boron) .
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 is shown moving in 644 on input conveyor belt 646.
- Angled nozzles 672 spray n-type dopant liquid onto the surface at a sharp angle with respect to the surface (nozzles cover wafer width) .
- This n-type dopant liquid comes from an n-type liquid dopant source and nozzle reservoir/pump 674.
- Angled nozzles 676 spray p-type dopant liquid onto the surface at a sharp angle with respect to the surface (nozzles cover wafer width) .
- This p-type dopant liquid comes from a p- type liquid dopant source and nozzle pump 678.
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 next moves into the curing area where the dopant liquid/paste layers are concurrently formed using a curing lamp 656 which uses IR or UV curing beams 658.
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 is next shown moving out 660 to the output conveyor belt 662, which may move the substrate 642 to an inline diffusion furnace, where the n + and p + contacts and selective emitter regions are concurrently formed.
- the angled spray technique limits the vertical height of the liquid/paste coating to a portion of the ridges and prevents the liquid source from coating the inner parts of the hexagonal pyramid cavity sidewalls and/or rears.
- This type of in-line (or another drive method) processing system may also be used for applying metal source liquid (e.g., silver and/or aluminum source liquid) for fire-through metallization applications as well as applying liquid etchant for selective etching of dielectrics (e.g., oxide and/or solid dopant source layer) from the top and/or rear hexagonal- pyramid ridges.
- FIGURE 28 shows a view 680 of another alternative setup to perform the same processes as the in-line roller coater/curing setup of FIGURE 26 and the in-line spray coater/curing setup of FIGURE 27.
- the setup in FIGURE 28 may be used for self-aligned formation of dopant liquid/paste coating on the 3-D TFSC substrate top ridges and rear ridges by liquid-dip coating.
- This setup also may utilize an in-line atmospheric-pressure coating and curing equipment configuration to be attached to the input stage of an in-line diffusion (or fire-through) furnace.
- the top ridges are coated with n-type dopant liquid/paste (such as phosphorus) ; the rear ridges are coated with p-type dopant liquid/paste (such as boron) .
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 is shown moving in 644 on input conveyor belt 646.
- Liquid film dispenser containing retype liquid dopant source 682 applies a controlled thickness n-type liquid dopant film 684. This n-type dopant liquid comes from n-type liquid dopant source and liquid level and depth controller 686.
- Liquid film dispenser containing p-Type liquid dopant source (with peripheral air levitation) 688 applies a controlled thickness p-type liquid dopant film 690. This p-type dopant liquid comes from p-type liquid dopant source and liquid level and depth controller 692.
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 is shown moving in 644 on input conveyor belt 646.
- TFSC substrate 642 next moves into the curing area where the dopant liquid/paste layers are concurrently formed using a curing lamp 656 which uses IR or UV curing beams 658.
- the 3-D TFSC substrate 642 is next shown moving out 660 to the output conveyor belt 662, which may move the substrate 642 to an inline diffusion furnace, where the n + and p + contacts and selective emitter regions are concurrently formed.
- multilayer materials may be coated on each side of the 3-D TFSC substrate by using multiple sets of liquid-dip applicators (not shown here) and applying (or flowing) a different liquid source material to each liquid-dip applicator on the top and/or rear set of applicators.
- This type of processing system may also be used for applying metal liquid for fire-through metallization as well as applying liquid etchant for selective etching of dielectrics (e.g., oxide and/or solid dopant source layer) from the top and/or rear ridges.
- dielectrics e.g., oxide and/or solid dopant source layer
- FIGURE 29 shows a cross-sectional view 700 of the 3-D substrate 102 (showing one of the hexagonal-pyramid cells 106) after the above-mentioned doping process step in a suitable process equipment such as an in line belt-driven equipment (roller coating or spray coating or liquid-dip coating or another liquid/paste-transfer coating of dopant liquids/pastes, drying/curing, and diffusion furnace anneal) .
- a suitable process equipment such as an in line belt-driven equipment (roller coating or spray coating or liquid-dip coating or another liquid/paste-transfer coating of dopant liquids/pastes, drying/curing, and diffusion furnace anneal) .
- the single furnace anneal process in the diffusion furnace (e.g., at roughly 800 0 C to 950 0 C) produces more heavily-doped contact diffusion regions 704 with higher surface phosphorus concentrations on the top silicon hexagonal ridges directly in contact with and underneath the cured retype dopant solid source layer 702.
- the furnace anneal / diffusion process concurrently dopes the remaining frontside surface regions 706 not covered with the solid dopant source layer with phosphorus with smaller surface concentration and smaller dose, thus, creating self-aligned selective emitter regions with lighter surface doping.
- These less heavily doped regions 706 improve the blue response of the solar cell, while the more heavily doped ridges 704 will minimize the frontside contact resistance of the solar cell for improved cell emitter contact metallization.
- L 712 is much less than H 232 and much less than h 150, with H 232 between 100 and 500 microns, while L 712 is between 2 and 20 microns.
- FIGURES 30 shows YY cross-sectional views 730 and 740 after self-aligned formation of the emitter and base contacts and solar cell interconnects.
- the emitter contact is preferably wrapped around (or it may be wrapped- through frame holes not shown) the 3-D substrate frame to make all the cell contacts on the rear side of the solar cell (for ease of solar module assembly automation) .
- the self-aligned frontside honeycomb contacts 174 are placed within the more heavily n + ⁇ doped top ridges 704 of the honeycomb structure (thus, producing very low contact resistance) .
- the remaining top regions not covered by the emitter contacts (which is most of the hexagonal-pyramid sidewall area doped by proximity vapor-phase doping from the adjacent solid dopant source regions) has the less heavily doped n + selective emitter regions, enabling excellent solar cell blue response.
- the base metallization contacts 176 on the rear side hexagonal-pyramid tips cover the more heavily p + ⁇ doped regions (formed by direct contact with the solid dopant source layer) , resulting in low base contact metallization resistance.
- the remaining base surface regions on the rear side of the 3-D substrate are less heavily doped with boron (by proximity vapor-phase doping from the adjacent solid dopant source regions) , enabling very low surface recombination velocity and improved cell performance. Also shown is surface passivation & ARC layers (thermal Si ⁇ 2 and PECVD or PVD hydrogenated SiN x ) 736.
- FIGURES 31 and 32 show YY cross-sectional views 750 and 760 of the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid solar cells (showing a single hexagonal-pyramid unit cell and several adjacent unit cells, respectively) after completion of the solar cell fabrication process and after soldering (or connecting with a suitable electrically conductive epoxy) 752 the rear base contacts 176 (rear hexagonal-pyramid metallized tips) to the rear cell mirror 754 (and base interconnect) plate.
- This mirror/interconnect plate may be made of a number of materials, preferably Ag-coated Cu or Ag-coated Al (or any other suitable electrically conductive and optically reflecting material) .
- FIGURES show alternative views, corresponding to various steps in the process flows for fabrication of TFSCs outlined above.
- FIGURE 33 shows a YY cross-sectional view 770 of the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate 102 (showing one pyramid unit cell) after self-aligned roller coating (or spray coating or liquid-dip coating or another suitable liquid- transfer coating) of n-type dopant paste/liquid 702 on the frontside honeycomb ridges 272, and after drying/curing and furnace annealing, preferably in an in-line belt furnace, to form the selective emitter regions and heavily-doped emitter contact diffusion regions (the preferred embodiment applies both n-type and p-type dopant pastes or liquids on the frontside and backside, respectively, before a single furnace anneal / diffusion process to form the doped diffusion regions , including selective emitter junction regions) .
- This structure shows the unit cell after short thermal oxidation
- FIGURE 29 This embodiment shows no prior p + base contact doping (it will be done by Al doping in conjunction with Al rear base contact formation using a base contact firing process) .
- FIGURE 34 is similar to FIGURE 33, except FIGURE 34 shows p + base contact doping by roller coating (or spray coating or liquid-dip coating or another suitable liquid- transfer coating) of a p-type dopant layer and subsequent curing and anneal (same anneal as emitter) .
- Self-aligned solid-dopant-source-doped rear p + contact regions 782 are illustrated using dotted lines.
- FIGURE 35 shows a cross-sectional view 790 similar to the view 700 shown in FIGURE 29. However, in the embodiment shown in FIGURE 35 there is only coating of n-type dopant paste/liquid on the frontside honeycomb ridges. There is no p + dopant paste/liquid applied to the backside.
- FIGURE 36 shows a YY cross-sectional view 800 of a 3-D hexagonal-pyramid substrate 102 after self-aligned formation of the frontside (top) solid n + (e.g., doped with phosphorus) solid dopant source layer and selective emitter.
- This structure leads to the structure shown in FIGURE 41.
- the frontside pattern consists of honeycomb ridges which will be subsequently used for formation of the emitter contacts/interconnects.
- FIGURE 37 shows a ZZ cross-sectional view 810.
- FIGURE 38 shows a YY cross-sectional view 820 of a 3-D hexagonal-pyramid substrate 200 after self-aligned formation of the frontside (top) solid n + (e.g., doped with phosphorus) and p + solid dopant source layer, selective emitter, as well as the self-aligned frontside emitter and rear base contacts (shown with fire-through metallization but selective plating may also be used to obtain the same structure) .
- This structure leads to the structure shown in FIGURE 41.
- the frontside pattern consists of honeycomb ridges which will be subsequently used for formation of the emitter contacts/interconnects.
- FIGURE 39 shows a ZZ cross-sectional view 830.
- FIGURE 40 shows a schematic quasi-3-D view 850 of a hexagonal-pyramid unit cell of one embodiment of a 3-D TFSC substrate structure of the disclosed subject matter after formation of the self-aligned frontside emitter contact (on the honeycomb ridges) and the rear base contact (on the hexagonal-pyramid rear tips) .
- Solar light enter the solar cell from the topside into the hexagonal-pyramid unit cell cavities.
- FIGURE 41 shows a view 860 of an alternative embodiment of solar cell assembly on the rear mirror and base interconnect (the first embodiment shown in FIGURE 32) .
- this embodiment uses a diffused rear base mirror 862 (with a roughened Ag-coated surface to scatter the reflected light back into the 3-D cell structure) .
- the previous section illustrated a preferred embodiment of a hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrate.
- Alternative embodiments may use alternative designs for the unit cells such as inverted pyramid unit cells with polygon bases, including square pyramid, triangular pyramid, etc.; other embodiments may include 3-D TFSC substrates with V-groove or orthogonal V-groove patterns, etc.
- FIGURE 42 shows a top view 864 of a 3-D TFSC substrate with a square- pyramid unit cell structure.
- the primary difference between this pattern and the preferred embodiment hexagonal-pyramid unit cell pattern is the top base (or pyramid aperture) geometry (square base versus hexagonal base for the inverted pyramid unit cells) .
- the vertical height and base area values of the square pyramid unit cells are comparable to those of the hexagonal-pyramid unit cells (similar considerations apply) .
- FIGURE 43 shows a top view 866 of a 3-D TFSC substrate with a triangular-pyramid unit cell structure.
- FIGURE 44 shows a top view 868 of a 3-D TFSC substrate with an orthogonal V-groove unit cell structure.
- the orthogonal V-groove unit cell preferably has four adjacent rectangular or square-shaped arrays of V-grooves, with the V- grooves in each pair of adjacent sub-unit cells running perpendicular to each other.
- a 3-D TFSC substrate uses a large number of the orthogonal unit cells shown above.
- the ranges for height and width of the V-grooves in the orthogonal V- groove unit cells are similar to the height and diameter ranges of the hexagonal-pyramid unit cells, respectively.
- Each square-shaped sub-unit cell (four sub-unit cells shown above produce one orthogonal V-groove unit cell) may have tens to hundreds of V-grooves.
- the orthogonal V-groove structure provides additional mechanical rigidity compared to the standard V-groove structure with parallel V-grooves on the entire substrate.
- the dotted lines depict the V-groove trench bottoms whereas the solid lines show the top ridges of the V- grooves.
- FIGURE 45 shows XX 870, YY 872, and ZZ 874 cross sectional views of the 3-D TFSC substrate with an orthogonal V-groove unit cell structure, shown in FIGURE 44.
- FIGURE 46 shows a top view 876 of a 3-D TFSC substrate with an alternative orthogonal diagonal V-groove unit cell structure, compared to the orthogonal V-groove unit cell structure shown in FIGURE 44.
- the orthogonal diagonal V- groove unit cell preferably has four adjacent rectangular or square-shaped arrays of V-grooves, with the V-grooves in each pair of adjacent sub-unit cells running perpendicular to each other.
- FIGURE 47 shows YY 878, XX 880, and ZZ 882 cross sectional views of the 3-D TFSC substrate with an alternative orthogonal diagonal V-groove unit cell structure, shown in FIGURE 46.
- alternative embodiments of process flows for fabricating templates using either lithography and etch techniques or laser micromachining (or laser drilling) are described. The templates are then used and reused numerous times to fabricate the 3-D TFSC substrates for 3-D TFSC fabrication.
- Templates may be fabricated using electronic-grade silicon wafers, solar-grade silicon wafers, or lower-cost metallurgical-grade silicon wafers. Moreover, templates made of silicon can be fabricated either using monocrystalline or multicrystalline silicon wafers.
- the starting template wafer may either be a standard polished wafer (after saw damage removal) or even a lower grade wafer immediately after wire sawing (without saw damage removal) . The latter may further reduce the cost of the templates.
- the relatively low cost of each template is spread over numerous 3-D TFSC substrates, resulting in much lower TFSC substrate and finished module costs compared to the standard state-of-the-art (e.g., 200 microns thick) solar-grade monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon wafers and associated modules.
- FIGURE 48 shows an embodiment of a process flow 890.
- the process begins with step 891, where an unpatterned monocrystalline silicon or multicrystalline silicon, either square-shaped or round substrate (e.g., 200 mm x 200 mm square or 200-mm round) is provided.
- the starting template wafer may be a wafer prepared by wire saw either with or without saw damage removal (the latter may further reduce the cost of template) .
- the starting template wafer may also be made of a lower purity (and lower cost) metallurgical-grade silicon.
- the substrate is roughly 200 to 800 microns thick.
- step 891 includes performing gettering on a low-cost metallurgical-grade silicon and/or performing a surface texturing etch (e.g., using isotropic acid texturing by a mixture of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid, or using alkaline texturing in KOH/IPA) to create an optional textured template surface.
- Step 892 involves the use of programmable precision laser micromachining to form the desired periodic array of deep trenches. This process may be performed in a controlled atmospheric ambient based on either physical ablation or a combination of physical ablation and laser- assisted chemical etching.
- Step 893 involves template surface preparation and cleaning. This process includes stripping the patterned photoresist layer from the substrate.
- the template substrate is then cleaned in a wet bench prior to subsequent thermal deposition processing to form the TFSC substrates.
- cleaning may involve DRIE-induced polymer removal (using a suitable wet etchant such as a mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide) followed by an isotropic silicon wet etch (such as in a mixture of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid) in order to isotropically remove a thin layer (e.g., on the order of 10 to 500 nanometers) of silicon from the trench sidewalls and bottoms.
- Template processing may complete after a deionized (DI) water rinse and drying.
- DI deionized
- the template wafer may also go through a standard pre-diffusion (or pre-thermal processing) wafer cleaning process such as a so-called RCA wet clean prior to the above- mentioned DI water rinsing and drying.
- Another optional surface preparation step includes performing a short thermal oxidation (e.g., to grow 5 to 100 nanometers of sacrificial silicon dioxide) , followed by wet hydrofluoric acid (HF) oxide strip (to remove any residual contaminants from the patterned template) . If no optional oxide growth/HF strip is used, an optional dilute HF etch may performed to remove the native oxide layer and to passivate the surface with hydrogen (forming Si-H bonds) in preparation for subsequent 3-D TFSC substrate fabrication. After the completion of step 893, the resulting template may then be used and reused multiple times to fabricate 3-D (e.g. hexagonal-pyramid) TFSC substrates.
- 3-D e.g. hexagonal-pyramid
- FIGURE 49 An alternative embodiment of a process flow 894 for patterning of a template is outlined in FIGURE 49, which uses photolithography and etch instead of direct laser micromachining.
- Step 895 provisioning an unpatterned substrate
- Step 896 uses photolithography patterning (in one embodiment, using a relatively low-cost contact or proximity aligner/patterning) to produce a mask pattern such as hexagonal-pyramid pattern in photoresist (i.e., interconnected hexagonal openings in the photoresist layer) .
- the process sequence includes the formation of an oxide and/or nitride (optional) layer, photoresist coating (e.g., spin-on or spray coating) and pre- bake, photolithography exposure through a hexagonal-array mask, and photoresist development and post-bake.
- One embodiment includes an optional hard mask layer (SiO 2 and/or SiN x ; for example, a thin thermally grown oxide layer can be used as an optional hard mask) below the photoresist (although the process may be performed without the use of any hard mask layer by placing the photoresist coating directly on silicon) .
- the exposed portions of the hard mask layer are etched after photoresist patterning (thus, forming hexagonal openings) .
- Step 897 involves formation of hexagonal-pyramids using anisotropic plasma etch; where a high-rate deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) process forms a closely-packed array of deep (e.g., 100 to 400 microns) hexagonal-pyramid shaped trenches (i.e., pyramidal trenches with sloped sidewalls) in silicon.
- DRIE deep reactive ion etch
- the photoresist and/or oxide and/or nitride hard mask layer (s) are used for pattern transfer from the patterned photoresist layer to silicon substrate.
- the deep RIE (DRIE) process parameters are set to produce a controlled- angle hexagonal-pyramid sidewall slope.
- the RIE is allowed to produce small-diameter (e.g., less than 5 microns) holes at the bottom of pyramids by punching through the substrate backside. Alternatively, separate small-diameter backside holes may be formed which connect to the bottom tips of the pyramidal trenches.
- Step 898 surface preparation and cleaning
- the resulting template may then be used and reused multiple times to fabricate 3-D (e.g. hexagonal-pyramid) TFSC substrates.
- 3-D e.g. hexagonal-pyramid
- FIGURE 50 shows an embodiment of a process flow 900 for fabrication of self-supporting, free-standing 3-D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrates.
- the process uses a lift-off 3-D thin-film release process based on a highly selective etch process to remove an interfacial sacrificial layer (of Gei_ x Si x ) without any appreciable etching of silicon.
- the Gei_ x Si x layer may be a single layer with a constant Ge fraction or a multilayer (e.g., 2 to 3 layers) structure with varying Ge fractions.
- a patterned square-shaped template is provided.
- Step 902 involves a multi-layer blanket epi in an epitaxial reactor.
- Step 902 first involves an H2 or GeH 4 /H2 in-situ cleaning, which is performed after a standard pre-epi wet clean.
- a thin sacrificial epi layer is deposited on the frontside only.
- Ge x Sii_ x is used for the sacrificial epi layer and is between 10 and 200 nanometers.
- a doped silicon epi layer is deposited on the frontside only.
- the layer is p-type, boron-doped and has a thickness between 2 and 20 microns.
- Step 903 involves 3-D TFSC substrate release.
- a highly selective isotropic wet or dry etch of Ge x Sii_ x is performed, with very high selectivity with respect to silicon.
- a mixture of hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid and acetic acid (HNA) is used to etch the Ge x Sii_ x layer.
- HNA hydrofluoric acid
- a mixture of ammonia, peroxide, and water NH 4 OH + H2O2 + H 2 O
- the in-situ base doping type is chosen to be p-type (e.g., boron) or n-type (e.g., phosphorus).
- p-type e.g., boron
- n-type e.g., phosphorus
- the embodiments shown provide examples of boron-doped hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSC substrates which may be used to fabricate TFSCs with retype, phosphorus-doped selective emitters.
- all the doping polarities may be inverted, resulting in phosphorus-doped hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSC substrates which may be used for fabricating cells with boron- doped selective emitters.
- FIGURE 51 shows an alternative embodiment of a process flow 904 for fabrication of self-supporting, free- standing 3-D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrates.
- the same process flow may be used for fabrication of 3-D TFSC substrates with other unit cell structures (square pyramid, triangular pyramid, orthogonal V-grooves, orthogonal diagonal V-grooves, etc.).
- This process uses a suitable sacrificial material layer (e.g., silicon dioxide) to facilitate the 3-D TFSC substrate release and lift-off (or removal from the template) .
- Laser crystallization may be used to crystallize the amorphous silicon or polysilicon layer.
- Step 905 providing a template corresponds to step 901 above.
- Step 906 involves sacrificial layer deposition, where a thin sacrificial layer (e.g., Si ⁇ 2) is deposited preferably by APCVD (alternatively, use LPCVD or PECVD or even thermal oxidation) . In one embodiment, this layer is between 20 nm and 200 nm of Si ⁇ 2.
- doped (e.g., p-type) silicon layer preferably doped amorphous silicon or polysilicon
- PECVD e.g., 2 to 20 microns thick; boron- doped
- Step 908 involves depositing a thin sacrificial layer (e.g., Si ⁇ 2) as a top protective layer, preferably by chemical- vapor deposition process such as APCVD (alternatively, use LPCVD or PECVD or even thermal oxidation) .
- this layer may be 5 nm to 50 nm of Si ⁇ 2.
- laser crystallization preferably starting from a silicon frame at substrate edge
- laser crystallization seed edge-to-center crystallization
- Step 910 involves releasing the 3-D TFSC substrate, by performing a highly selective isotropic HF wet etching of the sacrificial Si ⁇ 2 layer (with high selectivity with respect to silicon) to etch off the oxide release layer between the p-type 3-D silicon film and the template (this process lifts the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid silicon film) .
- releasing the 3-D film may be aided by applying a small mechanical stress (e.g., wafer warpage) or applying ultrasonic or megasonic agitation during the release etch.
- FIGURE 52 shows an alternative embodiment of a process flow 911 for fabrication of self-supporting, free- standing 3-D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrates.
- the same process flow may be used for fabrication of 3-D TFSC substrates with other unit cell structures (square pyramid, triangular pyramid, orthogonal V-grooves, orthogonal diagonal V-grooves, other types of pyramids, etc.).
- This process uses a sacrificial or disposable material layer (e.g., silicon dioxide) to facilitate the 3-D TFSC substrate release and.
- Laser crystallization may be used to crystallize the amorphous silicon or polysilicon layer.
- Step 912 providing a template
- Step 913 sacrificial layer deposition
- Step 914 involves performing a backside wet etching of Si ⁇ 2 to re-open the oxide- filled substrate bottom holes.
- Step 915 corresponds to step 907 above; and step 916 (sacrificial layer deposition) corresponds to step 908.
- step 917 laser crystallization of the doped silicon layer is performed, using the single-crystal islands at the bottom holes of hexagonal-pyramids as laser crystallization seeds.
- Step 918 (3-D TFSC substrate release) corresponds to step 910 above .
- FIGURE 53 shows an alternative embodiment of a process flow 919 for fabrication of self-supporting, freestanding 3-D hexagonal-pyramid TFSC substrates.
- Step 920 (providing a template) corresponds to step 901 above.
- Step 921 involves Electrochemical Silicon Etching in a Wet Bench to produce a single-layer porous silicon or a bilayer stack of a top layer of low-porosity porous silicon on a layer of high-porosity porous silicon, using electrochemical HF etching (also known as electrochemical anodization of silicon to form porous silicon) .
- the porous silicon layer or layer stack may be formed either by direct electrochemical etching of the template substrate or by first depositing a thin layer of epitaxial silicon and then converting the thin silicon epi layer to sacrificial porous silicon using electrochemical etching.
- silicon epitaxy is performed in an epitaxial reactor to form preferably monocrystalline silicon on top of the porous silicon sacrificial layer or layer stack, with the following in-situ process steps performed: H2 in-situ clean; deposition of doped (e.g., p-type) silicon epi (top only) (e.g., 2 to 20 microns thick; boron-doped).
- doped e.g., p-type silicon epi (top only) (e.g., 2 to 20 microns thick; boron-doped).
- the 3-D TFSC substrate is released by either applying a mechanical stress to the substrate (e.g., by applying a slight warpage to the substrate) , or simply by selective wet etching of the sacrificial porous silicon layer (or layer stack) using a suitable etchant (such as HF + H2O2 or TMAH or another suitable selective porous silicon etchant) .
- a suitable etchant such as HF + H2O2 or TMAH or another suitable selective porous silicon etchant
- solar modules are made by arranging a plurality of solar cells and connecting them in series (series electrical connections) within a solar module assembly protected by a top glass layer and a rear protective material layer such as Tedlar.
- the cells may be connected in series in order to step up the DC voltage (while maintaining the solar module current at the same level at the level of the cell current) to facilitate high-efficiency DC-to-AC power conversion .
- FIGURE 54 illustrates a first embodiment of a process flow 924 for fabrication of solar modules with top protective glass plates and embedded PCBs of this disclosure
- This manufacturing flow is compatible with a fully automated module assembly line.
- This module assembly flow is based on the use of a double- sided printed-circuit board (PCB) with the cell rear mirrors/base interconnects on the PCB topside (silver-coated patterned copper on the PCB topside) .
- PCB printed-circuit board
- module assembly For hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSCs with rear base layers and integrated/embedded (or attached) rear mirrors fabricated prior to module assembly (e.g., hexagonal-pyramid cells with rear base layers and thin- film rear mirrors deposited on the rear surfaces of the rear base layers using PVD or plating or roller coating/spray coating and curing) , the patterned PCB copper layer does not have to be coated with a high-reflectivity mirror material (silver) .
- module assembly starts with a double- sided PCB coated with copper foils on both frontside and backside.
- Step 926 involves PCB interconnect patterning and silver flash coating (the latter if needed for PCB rear mirror) .
- the PCB frontside and backside copper foils are patterned according to the desired frontside and backside interconnect layouts. Copper patterns are flash coated with a thin layer of highly reflective silver (and/or aluminum) . A highly reflective diffuse mirror may be used, though a specular mirror may also be used.
- Step 927 involves cell preparation for automated TFSC placement and soldering.
- Step 928 involves automated TFSC placement and soldering (or curing of epoxy) .
- TFSCs are automatically picked and placed in a closely-packed array on the frontside of the PCB.
- the rear side of each cell sits on its designated site on the frontside of the double-sided PCB with patterned copper interconnects.
- the TFSC rear hexagonal- pyramid base interconnect is soldered to the PCB frontside silver-coated patterned copper islands using thermal or ultrasonic soldering.
- the epoxy layer is cured using thermal and/or IR/UV curing.
- Step 929 involves final solar module assembly and lamination.
- a stack of low-reflection tempered (in one embodiment, also textured) top glass, an encapsulant layer, the cell-mounted PCB, another encapsulant layer and a Tedlar or polyvinyl fluoride back sheet is prepared.
- the module stack assembly is hermetically sealed and packaged, for instance, using vacuum-pressure lamination.
- FIGURE 55 shows a cross-sectional view 930 of a solar module (solar panel) structure (resulting from the process flow described in FIGURE 54) with a protective back plate 931 made of a proven prior art material (e.g., Tedlar or polyvinyl fluoride film) ; a rear encapsulant layer 932 (EVA) , a 2-sided printed-circuit board (PCB) 933 of this disclosure with rear patterned electrical interconnects 934 and top patterned electrical interconnects 935; cell rear mirrors and TFSCs 936 with rear base and wrap-around (or wrap-through) emitter contacts mounted on the frontside of the PCB, a top encapsulate layer (EVA) 937, and an anti-reflection-coated (ARC) tempered glass (in one embodiment, textured tempered glass) 938 (from rear to top) , with greater than 98% transmission, with sputtered or sprayed or liquid-coated anti- reflection coating) .
- a protective back plate 931
- This module structure may be assembled as a hermetically sealed package either as a frameless module or with a frame (e.g., made of aluminum) .
- the module assembly is a frameless assembly (also for reduced materials energy content and reduced energy payback time) .
- FIGURE 56 outlines an alternative embodiment of an assembly process flow 940 for fabrication of reduced cost and reduced weight (lightweight) solar modules (corresponding to the solar module structure of FIGURE 57) .
- This flow is compatible with a fully automated module assembly.
- This process flow shows the assembly process without the use of a thick glass plate (thus, further reducing the weight, cost, and energy payback time of the solar modules of this disclosure) and without an EVA encapsulant layer on the top of the cells.
- the module topside (the frontside of assembled cells) is covered with a hard protective glass-type layer (if desired, also including a top ARC layer) with a combined thickness on the order of tens to hundreds of microns. As deposited, this frontside protective layer is effectively textured as a result of the 3-D structure of the TFSCs.
- the top layer may be formed by a liquid coating technique (e.g., spray coating, liquid-dip coating, or roller coating) following by a thermal or UV curing process.
- the thermal (or UV) cure for the liquid-spray-coated (or liquid-dip coated or roller coated) protective/AR layers may be performed as a single step together with the vacuum-pressure thermal lamination process.
- Step 942 corresponds to step 902 in FIGURE 54;
- step 944 PCB patterning and silver flash coat
- step 946 cell preparation
- step 948 automated TFSC placement
- step 950 involves solar module lamination.
- a stack of the cell- mounted PCB, an encapsulant layer, and a back sheet is prepared.
- a suitable hermetic sealing/packaging process such as vacuum-pressure lamination is performed.
- Step 952 involves deposition of the solar module frontside protective coating (which may be automatically textured as deposited and provides efficient light trapping for effective coupling to the TFSCs) layer and an optional ARC layer.
- the frontside of the solar panel is coated with a thin layer of protective material (e.g., a glass-type transparent material) and an optional top anti-reflection coating (ARC) layer using a suitable coating method.
- This coating (roughly tens to hundreds of microns) may be performed using liquid spray coating, liquid roller coating, liquid-dip coating, plasma spray coating or another suitable method.
- a thermal/UV curing process is performed.
- FIGURE 57 shows a cross-sectional view 960 of another embodiment of a solar module structure (resulting from the process flow described in FIGURE 56) .
- a top encapsulate layer (EVA) 937, and an anti-reflection-coated (ARC) tempered glass 938 as shown in FIGURE 55, there is a single frontside protective layer and anti-reflective coating layer 962.
- the frontside protective layer and anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer 962 is formed by liquid spray coating/curing, liquid roller coating/curing, liquid-dip coating/curing, plasma spray coating, or another suitable low- temperature coating technique.
- This frontside protective coating and ARC layer 962 is effectively textured for the coating layer as deposited as a result of the 3-D structure of the TFSCs (thus, no separate texturing process is needed) .
- the coating layer may have dips (low points) over the TFSC hexagonal-pyramid cavities and peaks (high points) over the hexagonal-pyramid emitter ridges.
- the frontside protective layer and anti-reflective coating layer 962 may have a combined thickness in the range of tens to hundreds of microns. In one embodiment, the thickness may be approximately 30 to 300 microns.
- the stacked frontside protective/ARC layer provides excellent protection against weather/elements and force impact (e.g., hail impact) in actual outdoor field operation.
- the frontside coating is effectively and automatically textured as a result of the 3-D structure of the TFSCs, the use of a separate ARC layer on the frontside coating is optional.
- the textured coating may provide effective light trapping in the frontside coating for effective coupling of a very high fraction (e.g., greater than 95%) of the incident solar light intensity to the TFSCs.
- the frontside protective layers may also provide an optical waveguiding function to eliminate or reduce any reflection losses associated with the top emitter contact metallization .
- FIGURE 58 shows a view 970 of a solar cell integrated or assembled in building windows.
- the solar cell can allow partial visible light transmission (e.g., with transmission on the order of 10% to 30%) by creating an array of holes or slot openings in the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid solar cell substrate.
- the cell has a regular array of holes or slot openings to allow for 5% to 20% light transmission.
- This FIGURE has a magnified view of a portion of the solar glass with the hexagonal-pyramid cells (thus, the relative dimensions of the hexagonal-pyramid cell and the solar glass are not shown to scale) .
- FIGURE 58 shows frontside TFSC hexagonal emitter interconnects 174 and self- aligned backside hexagonal base contact 176.
- FIGURE 59 shows a view 980 of a representative example of series connections of TFSCs of this disclosure in a solar module assembly. This example shows 24 squared-shaped cells 982 connected in series (in a 6 x 4 array) . The electrical connections in series are shown by arrows between the adjacent cells connected in series. Module power input 984 and output 986 leads are also shown.
- the numbers of cells may be smaller or larger and the cells may be connected in series or in a combination of series and parallel.
- series connection of the cells within the module assembly allows for stepping up the DC voltage for the DC-to-AC inverter (and also limiting the DC current of the solar modules for ease of module installation in the field and reliability of the module-to- module electrical connections) .
- the printed-circuit-board (PCB) based module assembly of this disclosure supports any number of cells assembled in a module and any electrical connection configuration (series, series/parallel combination, or parallel) .
- the TFSCs and modules of this disclosure may provide relatively lightweight solar modules with areas from less than 1 m 2 to several m 2 (e.g., 10 m 2 ) for various applications.
- the cells connected in series within a module assembly are chosen based on sorting to be matched in terms of their photogenerated current (e.g., short-circuit current I sc and/or maximum-power current I m ) .
- the solar module structures and assembly methods of this disclosure are based on the use of a printed-circuit board (PCB) to assemble the 3-D TFSCs in a closely packed array and to connect the cells (in one embodiment in series) using the PCB plate within a module assembly.
- the PCB plate may have a single patterned metal (in one embodiment, copper) interconnect layer on the top of the PCB or two patterned copper layers on the top and rear surfaces of the PCB plate.
- FIGURE 60 shows a view 990 of the frontside silver-coated copper layout of the printed-circuit board (PCB) used for solar module assembly (the square islands serve both as rear mirrors (if no integrated mirror is used with single-aperture cells, or if the cells are dual-aperture cells without base layers) and base interconnects; the peripheral square-shaped copper bands connect to the wrap-around emitter contact at the TFSC peripheral frame rear side; copper-filled via plugs connecting select regions of the PCB frontside and backside are shown as small circles) .
- This example is shown for an array of 24 TFSCs arranged in 4 rows of 6 cells in each row (the PCB may be designed for any number and various arrangements of TFSCs) .
- the PCB conductor (copper or aluminum) thickness may be in the range of roughly 10 to over 100 microns to provide high electrical and thermal conductivities.
- the PCB also serves as an effective heat sink to minimize temperature cycling of the TFSCs in operation.
- the PCB material may be selected to be a lightweight, high- strength material (such as carbon composite materials used in aerospace industry) , or even a relatively thin flexible material.
- the larger-area square-shaped silver-coated copper regions 992 are connected to the TFSC rear base regions (bottoms of the rear base layers for the single-aperture cells or the bottom ridges of the dual-aperture cells for the dual- aperture cells) .
- the peripheral silver-coated copper lines 994 are electrically connected to the TFSC emitter contact metallization regions.
- FIGURE 61 shows a top view 1000 of the backside (optionally silver-coated) copper layout of the printed- circuit board (PCB) used for solar module assembly, showing the series connection of the TFSCs.
- the PCB backside may also include thin-film shunt diodes for shade protection of the TFSCs (as shown in FIGURE 60) .
- the copper-filled via plugs (shown as circles) connect the PCB frontside and backside metallization patterns in the corresponding areas. While the example shown here is for connecting 24 TFSCs in series on a solar panel, similar PCB design methodology may be applied to configure and connect any number of cells in any desired arrangements on the module.
- the frontside view of this PCB is shown in FIGURE 60.
- FIGURE 61 also shows power input Lead 984 (first cell's p-lead) and power output lead 986 (last cell' s n-lead) .
- FIGURE 62 shows a backside view 1010 of the copper pattern on the PCB and is essentially similar to FIGURE 61. This picture also shows the use of protective thin-film shunt diodes mounted on the PCB backside pattern (for cell shadow protection) .
- FIGURE 63A shows an enlarged top view 1020 of the silver-coated copper pattern (the pad for mounting one cell) on the frontside of the solar module printed-circuit board (PCB) used for rear mirror and also emitter and base interconnects for one of the TFSCs (relative dimensions are not shown to scale) .
- S 1026 may be on the order of 25 to 250 microns.
- the width of the peripheral copper conductor band (W) 1028 may be on the order of 50 to 500 microns.
- the copper-filled via plugs 1030 are shown as circles (connecting the interconnect patterns on the PCB frontside and backside in a pre-designed arrangement in order to connect the TFSCs in series or in any other desired arrangement such as series/parallel; the representative example shown here is for connecting all the cells in series in order to step up the module open-circuit voltage) .
- the via plug 1030 diameters may be on the order of roughly 50 to 500 microns (and may be smaller than W 1028) .
- the large central square pad serves both as the rear cell mirror and also base interconnect plane (connecting to the hexagonal-pyramid base contact metallization) .
- the number of vias in the center square (p-region contact) (N) 1032 may be on the order of hundreds to thousands.
- the number of vias in the peripheral line (n-region contact) (M) 1034 may be on the order of tens to hundreds (or even thousands) .
- the vias on the peripheral line contacting the TFSC emitter (n) regions are placed on three sides.
- the PCB conductor (copper or aluminum) thickness may be in the range of roughly 10 to over 100 microns to provide high electrical and thermal conductivities.
- the PCB plate also serves as an effective heat sink to minimize temperature cycling of the TFSCs in field operation.
- This FIGURE shows one of the copper interconnect/mirror pads shown in the full module PCB array of FIGURE 60.
- FIGURE 63B shows an enlarged top view 1040 of the silver-coated copper interconnect pattern on the backside of the solar module printed-circuit board (PCB) used for emitter and base electrical interconnects for a couple of adjacent TFSCs of this disclosure (a portion of the PCB view) .
- PCB printed-circuit board
- FIGURE 63B shows the PCB backside silver-coated copper interconnect pattern for TFSCs 1 and 2 in the array.
- the copper pattern here is shown for connecting the TFSCs in series to step up the module open-circuit voltage.
- FIGURE 63B shows dimensions of Li' 1042; peripheral emitter (n-region) connector linewidth W 1044 (in one embodiment, 2 to 10 millimeters) ; spacing between the center base (p-region) connector plate and the peripheral emitter (n-region) connector line S' 1046 (in one embodiment, 100 microns to 1 millimeter) .
- Li' 1042 is less than L x from FIGURE 63A by roughly 2 to 10 millimeters.
- the 3-D TFSC substrates of this disclosure may utilize peripheral thick silicon frames, both for added mechanical support and also to facilitate formation of wrap- through or wrap-around emitter contact metallization (for ease of solar module assembly) .
- the thick silicon frame may be separately made from very low-cost silicon material (such as metallurgical grade or reclaim silicon wafers) .
- FIGURE 64 shows various schematic views 1050 of the thick silicon frame, the silicon frame slivers, and representative method to produce (e.g., cut) silicon slivers from very-low-cost round (e.g., reject silicon from microelectronics) or square-shaped (or rectangular) cast silicon (or reclaim Si) substrates.
- the slivers may be made of very low-cost crystalline or multicrystalline silicon such as metallurgical-grade cast Si.
- a round 1052 or square-shaped 1054 silicon wafer may be used to produce hundreds of silicon slivers 1056 by a cutting process such as laser cutting (four slivers used to make a thick silicon frame for a 3-D TFSC substrate by a welding process such as electron-beam welding) .
- These slivers 1056 may be used to make the thick silicon frames for the substrates shown above.
- the separately fabricated thick silicon frame may then be integrally attached to the 3-D TFSC substrates, in embodiment before 3-D thin-film cell processing, by one of the following techniques: electron- beam welding at several peripheral spots/junctions; attachment during the 3-D TFSC substrate fabrication silicon deposition by placing the peripheral thick silicon frame on the template and allowing seamless attachment of the thick silicon frame to the 3-D TFSC substrate by the silicon deposition process; or a clean cured epoxy.
- Top view 1058 shows a thick silicon frame to be fused to the 3-D TFSC substrate.
- the silicon frame thickness 1060 is roughly 50 to 500 microns.
- the slivers 1056 may also have through- holes (shown in view 1068) to help with the wrap-through/wraparound emitter metallization contacts.
- the actual amount e.g., amount as measured by the total silicon surface area, volume, or weight
- the actual amount of silicon material used in the 3-D hexagonal-pyramid substrate structure is actually larger than that of a co-planar (flat) substrate with the same dimensions (e.g., 200 mm x 200 mm) .
- FIGURE 65 (similar to FIGURE 13) is provided for reference for the following calculations.
- B is the mid-point between H 2 and H 3 ;
- A is the mid-point between H 5 and H 6 ;
- AB is the hexagonal unit cell aperture horizontal distance (h) :
- the surface area of the cone pyramid base (S hb ) [00188]
- the surface area of the cone pyramid sidewall (S hp ) is provided for reference for the following calculations.
- FIGURE 66 shows the ratio of the hexagonal-pyramid sidewall area to the planar hexagonal base area (S hp /S hb ) versus the height-to-base diagonal diameter ratio (H/d) of the hexagonal-pyramid unit cell.
- the preferred H/d range for near-optimal aperture angles is shown between dashed lines (H/d roughly 1.5 to 3.0).
- FIGURES 67 and 68 shows calculated frontside aperture angles ( ⁇ and ⁇ ) of the solar cell hexagonal-pyramid unit cell versus the height-to-base diagonal diameter ratio (H/d) of the hexagonal-pyramid unit cell.
- FIGURE 69 is provided for reference for the following calculations.
- a hexagonal-pyramid unit cell of the 3-D substrate may be approximated by a cone (with the same height as a hexagonal-pyramid and the same base area as a hexagonal-pyramid).
- the aperture angle ( ⁇ ) is:
- S cp [ ( ⁇ D 2 )/4] .V[I + (2H/D) 2 ] [00197] Therefore, the ratio of the sidewall surface area S cp to the top base surface area S cb is:
- FIGURES 70 and 71 show the ratio of the cone-shaped unit cell sidewall area to the planar circular base area
- FIGURES provide plots of aperture angle and surface area ratio for a cone-shaped pyramid, whereas FIGURES 66 to 68 show these plots for a hexagonal-pyramid unit cell.
- the results (plots) for a cone-shaped pyramid unit cell (approximation of a hexagonal-pyramid unit cell) are fairly comparable to those for the hexagonal-pyramid unit cell.
- TFSC and module interconnects One important consideration in the TFSC and module interconnects is the total power loss associated with the electrical interconnects in the TFSCs and the solar module assembly.
- the hexagonal-pyramid 3-D c-Si TFSC and PCB-based module designs of this disclosure effectively address this issue, resulting in very low interconnect ohmic losses in the cells and within the module.
- This feature in conjunction with the highly efficient packing of the TFSCs on the PCB- based solar module assembly substantially narrows the efficiency gap between the TFSCs and the solar module assembly in the technology of this disclosure.
- the next section relates to the basic calculations of the emitter contact metallization ohmic losses in the hexagonal-pyramid 3-D TFSCs of this disclosure.
- the calculations of ohmic losses for emitter contact metallization are also applicable to the base contact metallization.
- the base contact metallization is electrically connected in a planar format to a very high conductivity copper pad; this substantially reduces the base interconnect ohmic losses (compared to the emitter interconnect ohmic losses) . Therefore, in practical embodiments of this disclosure, the interconnect ohmic losses are dominated by the emitter contact metallization .
- FIGURE 72 may be used for reference with an approximate analytical calculation of the TFSC interconnect ohmic losses, assuming a circular substrate with hexagonal- pyramid array of unit cells base on the cell design embodiments of this disclosure. Since the overall cell interconnect ohmic losses are dominated by the top emitter contact metallization, the ohmic power loss due to the hexagonal emitter contact metallization is calculated as a function of cell current at maximum power and emitter contact metal vertical height coverage ratio L/d (ratio of the height of emitter contact metal coverage on the pyramid sidewall to the pyramid unit cell long hexagonal diagonal dimension) . The analytical calculations shown here were used to produce the plots shown in the following FIGURES (FIGURES 73-87) .
- FIGURES 73 and 74 plot the projected (calculated) interconnect-related solar cell power losses in the 3-D TFSCs of the disclosed subject matter as a function of the ratio of the hexagonal-pyramid height to diagonal base dimension (H/d) for two different emitter interconnect area coverage ratios on the top of the 3-D solar cell substrate.
- H/d 2.0
- the ohmic power loss experienced as a result of extracting the maximum power from a 400 cm 2 solar cell is projected to be around 0.1 to 0.2 W (depending on the emitter metal coverage shown for the two plots) .
- the ohmic power losses for the solar cell interconnects (dominated by the emitter current collection) is projected to be between 1.25% and 2.5%.
- the PCB metal pattern can be designed such that the PCB interconnect ohmic power losses are much smaller than the above-mentioned solar cell interconnect power losses.
- the total ohmic power losses can be kept to well below 2%.
- the efficiency gap between the solar cells and the solar modules can be reduced to well below 2%.
- FIGURES show the calculated solar cell ohmic power loss for large-area cells with 400 cm 2 area and 12A current at maximum power (roughly 8 W p max power assumed) .
- R t hm is the sheet resistance of the emitter contact/metal layer (e.g., Ag layer or a stack of Ag on a refractory metal layer) on the honeycomb hexagonal ridges (0.0075 ⁇ /square for both graphs).
- the ratio L/H (here, 0.05 in FIGURE 73 and 0.025 in FIGURE 74) is the ratio of the vertical coverage height of the emitter metallized contact on the honeycomb ridges to the height of the hexagonal-pyramid unit cell.
- FIGURE 75 shows R thm of 0.002 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.05; and FIGURES 76 shows R thm of 0.002 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.01.
- FIGURE 77 shows R th m of 0.005 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.01; and
- FIGURES 78 shows R th m of 0.005 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.02.
- FIGURE 79 shows R th m of 0.005 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.05; and
- FIGURE 80 shows R th m of 0.005 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.1.
- FIGURE 81 shows R t hm of 0.01 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.05; and FIGURES 82 shows R t hm of 0.01 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.02.
- FIGURE 83 shows R thm of 0.003 ⁇ /square and L/H of 0.02; and FIGURES 84 shows
- the disclosed subject matter provides multiple embodiments of pyramidal three-dimensional thin-film solar cells.
- the pyramidal three-dimensional thin-film solar cell comprises a semiconductor substrate with self-aligned selective emitter regions and self-aligned base diffusion regions.
- the pyramidal three-dimensional thin-film solar cell further includes self-aligned emitter contact metallization regions and self-aligned base contact metallization regions.
Abstract
Description
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EP07868386A EP2084751A4 (en) | 2006-10-09 | 2007-10-07 | Pyramidal three-dimensional thin-film solar cells |
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US8035028B2 (en) | 2011-10-11 |
EP2084751A4 (en) | 2012-04-25 |
US20080289684A1 (en) | 2008-11-27 |
JP2010522971A (en) | 2010-07-08 |
US20120017988A1 (en) | 2012-01-26 |
EP2084751A2 (en) | 2009-08-05 |
CN101657904A (en) | 2010-02-24 |
WO2008057687A3 (en) | 2008-07-31 |
JP5519285B2 (en) | 2014-06-11 |
CN101657904B (en) | 2012-07-11 |
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