Partially transparent photovoltaic modules
AssigneeBP Corporation North America Inc.
InventorsRobert S. Oswald, Shengzhong Liu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A photovoltaic cell comprising a supporting substrate, a front contact layer on the substrate, a layer or layers of semiconductor material and a back contact layer comprising a metal, the back contact having areas without metal thereby permitting the passage of light through the cell.
Claims19
A method for making a thin film partially transparent photovoltaic module comprising series connected cells, at least one semiconductor layer, a metal contact layer, and interconnects connecting the series connected cells, the method comprising laser scribing a plurality of laser scribes at least through the metal contact and positioning the scribes in a direction that crosses the direction of the interconnects.
A method of manufacturing a photovoltaic device on a substrate, comprising the steps of:
- (a) depositing a transparent conductive oxide film on a substrate to form a front contact layer;
- (b) laser scribing substantially parallel first grooves in the front contact layer with a laser beam to form front electrode segments on the substrate;
- (c) depositing and forming a layer or layers of a semiconductor material on said front electrode segments, and filling the first grooves with the semiconductor material;
- (d) laser scribing second grooves in the layer or layers of semiconductor material at positions substantially parallel to the first grooves;
- (e) depositing and forming a back contact layer comprising a metal on the layer or layers of semiconductor material, and filling the second grooves with the metal to form a series connection to connect the front electrode segments and the back contact layer;
- laser scribing third grooves in the back contact layer at positions substantially parallel to the second grooves with a laser beam;
- and
- (g) laser scribing grooves in the back contact layer at a direction which crosses the direction of the second groove.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.