US 2019/0157482 A1 · METHOD FOR THIN-FILM VIA SEGMENTS IN PHOTOVOLTAIC DEVICE

Abstract

A method for vias and monolithic interconnects in thin-film optoelectronic devices in which at least one line segment via hole is formed by laser drilling and passes through front-contact layers and semiconductive active layer, and in which laser drilling causes forming a CIGS-type wall of electrically conductive permanently metalized copper-rich CIGS-type alloy at the inner surface of the via hole, forming a conductive path between at least a portion of front-contact and a portion of back-contact layers, forming a bump-shaped raised portion at the surface of the front-contact layer, forming a raised portion of the back-contact layer, and optionally forming a raised portion of copper-rich CIGS-type alloy covering a portion of the front-contact layer. A thin-film CIGS device includes at least one line segment via hole obtainable by the method.

Claims21

Dependent claims

1-20. (canceled)

A photovoltaic device comprising a plurality of photovoltaic cells including a first photovoltaic cell and a second photovoltaic cell, each photovoltaic cell comprising:

a front-contact layer;
a back-contact layer;
an absorber layer disposed between the front-contact layer and the back-contact layer, wherein the absorber layer comprises Cu(In,Ga)Se2;
and
a copper-containing structure forming an electrically conductive path between the front-contact layer and the back-contact layer, wherein the back-contact layer comprises a gutter-shaped structure extending around a first portion of the copper-containing structure, and wherein
the front-contact layer of the first photovoltaic cell is electrically connected to the back-contact layer of the second photovoltaic cell through a path that includes the copper-containing structure of the first photovoltaic cell and the copper-containing structure of the second photovoltaic cell, and
the gutter-shaped structure of the first photovoltaic cell has a different shape than the gutter-shaped structure of the second photovoltaic cell.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

16/154,709Filed 8 Oct 2018

Priority

IB PCT/IB2014/05870831 Jan 2014

Published

23 May 2019

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H10F 19/33
Having multiple laterally adjacent thin-film photovoltaic cells deposited on the same substrate: patterning processes to connect the photovoltaic…
H10F 10/167
Photovoltaic cells having only PN heterojunction potential barriers: comprising Group I-III-VI materials, e.g. CdS/CuInSe2 [CIS] heterojunction…
H10F 71/134
Manufacture or treatment of devices covered by this subclass: irradiation with electromagnetic or particle radiation
Y02E 10/541
Photovoltaic [PV] energy: cuInSe2 material PV cells

Method for thin-film via segments in photovoltaic device

Life of this patent

Method for thin-film via segments in photovoltaic device

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21