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US 2018/0294372 A1Published application
Back-contact thin film semiconductor device structures and methods for their production
AssigneeMicroLink Devices, Inc.
InventorsChristopher Youtsey, Rekha Reddy, Christopher Stender
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods taught herein provide thin film semiconductor devices such as thin film photovoltaic devices having via holes that enable electrical connection with a bottom surface of a topside contact of the thin film semiconductor device via the back side of the device (e.g., during mounting of the device). In some embodiments, the via holes are electrically insulated.
Claims20
A thin film photovoltaic device comprising:
- a semiconductor region having an emitter region and a base region;
- a topside contact disposed on an illuminated top surface of the semiconductor region;
- a bottom backside contact disposed on a portion of a bottom surface of the semiconductor region facing away from the top surface of the semiconductor region;
- and
- a via hole extending through the bottom backside contact and the semiconductor region allowing access to a bottom surface of the topside contact from a backside portion of the thin film photovoltaic device, the via hole having an open end and a closed end with a portion of the bottom surface of the topside contact forming at least a portion of the closed end.
2 more elements
A method for fabricating a thin film photovoltaic device, the method comprising:
- providing a thin film photovoltaic structure including:
- a semiconductor region having an emitter region and a base region, a topside contact disposed on a top surface of the semiconductor region, and a bottom backside contact disposed on a bottom backside surface of the semiconductor region facing away from the top surface, the thin film photovoltaic structure free of a substrate on which the semiconductor layers were formed;
- and
- forming a via hole extending through the bottom backside contact and through the semiconductor region, the via hole having an open end and a closed end and exposing a portion of a bottom surface of the topside contact through the open end, the exposed portion of the topside contact forming at least a portion of the closed end of the via hole.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.