Amorphous solar module having improved passivation
AssigneeKanegafuchi Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAtsuo Ishikawa, Toshihito Endo, Hideo Yamagishi, Yoshihisa Tawada
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Abstract
A solar module made by the sequential stacking of a conducting metal oxide layer, an amorphous semiconductor layer, a back metal electrode, and a passivating resin layer on a transparent substrate, in which the passivating resin layer includes a water vapor barrier layer having a permeability to water vapor of not more than 1 g/m.sup.2 day measured at a thickness of 100 .mu.m, with the water vapor barrier layer being a polymer having a backbone consisting essentially of carbon and hydrogen. This barrier layer prevents the oxidation of the back metal electrode by water vapor, so that the stability of the module is improved in outdoor use.
Claims7
A solar module comprising a glass substrate having formed thereon, in order,
- (a) a conductive metal oxide layer;
- (b) an amorphous semiconductor layer;
- (c) a back metal electrode;
- and
- (d) a passivating resin layer,
- wherein the passivating resin layer comprises a hydrocarbon-based water vapor barrier layer having a permeability to water vapor of not more than 1 g/m.sup.2 day measured at a thickness of 100 .mu.m, and wherein said water vapor barrier layer comprises a polymer selected from the group consisting of polyisobutylene, polyisoprene, modified polyisoprene, polybutene, polybutadiene, and modified polybutadiene.
A solar module comprising a glass substrate having formed thereon, in order,
- (a) a conductive metal oxide layer;
- (b) an amorphous semiconductor layer;
- (c) a back metal electrode;
- and
- (d) a passivating resin layer,
- wherein the passivating resin layer comprises a hydrocarbon-based water vapor barrier layer having a permeability to water vapor of not more than 1 g/m.sup.2 day measured at a thickness of 100 .mu.m and wherein the water vapor barrier layer comprises a polyisobutylene resin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.