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US 2012/0055535 A1Published application
Photovoltaic Devices With Textured Glass Superstrate
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsRoman Gouk, Steven Verhaverbeke, Kurtis Leschkies, Robert Visser
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Abstract
Embodiments of the invention are directed to photovoltaic cells comprising a textured superstrate, a front contact layer, a photoabsorber layer and a back contact layer. The textured superstrate has a plurality of craters with an average opening angle, an average aspect ratio and an average depth. Methods of making such photovoltaic cells and photovoltaic modules are also described.
Claims20
A photovoltaic cell comprising:
- a superstrate having a textured top surface, the textured surface including a plurality of craters with an average opening angle, an average aspect ratio and an average depth with each crater having an individual opening angle, the aspect ratio defined by the ratio of depth to width of each crater and depth;
- a front contact layer on the top surface of the superstrate, the front contact layer conforming to the texture of the superstrate;
- a photoabsorber layer on the front contact layer, the photoabsorber layer conforming to the texture of the superstrate;
- and
- a back contact layer on the photoabsorber layer, the back contact layer conforming to the texture of the superstrate, wherein at least one of the average opening angle and the average aspect ratio is controlled to cause an increase of at least about 2% in surface area of the superstrate top surface.
2 more elements
A photovoltaic cell comprising:
- a superstrate having a textured top surface, the textured surface including a plurality of craters with an average opening angle less than about 170°, an average aspect ratio greater than about 0.06 and an average depth greater than about 10 μm, with each crater having an individual opening angle, the aspect ratio defined by the ratio of depth to width of each crater and depth;
- a front contact layer on the top surface of the superstrate, the front contact layer conforming to the texture of the superstrate;
- a photoabsorber layer on the front contact layer, the photoabsorber layer conforming to the texture of the superstrate;
- and
- a back contact layer on the photoabsorber layer, the back contact layer conforming to the texture of the superstrate, wherein at least one of the average opening angle and the average aspect ratio is controlled to cause an increase of at least about 2% in surface area of the superstrate top surface.
2 more elements
A method of making a photovoltaic cell comprising:
- depositing a front contact layer on a textured superstrate, the front contact layer conforming to the superstrate texture, the textured superstrate having a plurality of craters with an average opening angle and an average aspect ratio defined by the ratio of depth to width of each crater;
- depositing a photoabsorber layer on the front contact layer, the photoabsorber layer conforming to the textured superstrate and front contact layer;
- and
- depositing a back contact layer on the photoabsorber layer, the back contact layer conforming to the textured superstrate and the photoabsorber layer, wherein one or more of the average opening angle and average aspect ratio is controlled to cause an increase of at least about 2% in surface area of the superstrate top surface.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.