# US 7,745,831 B2 · Diamond-like carbon electronic devices and methods of manufacture

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- Number: US 7,745,831 B2
- Document ID: US7745831B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 11/893,589
- Filed: 2007-08-14
- Published: 2008-09-04
- Granted: 2010-06-29
- Earliest claimed: 2006-08-14
- Inventors: Chien-Min Sung
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US7745831B2

## CPC

- H10F 10/161: comprising multiple PN heterojunctions, e.g. tandem cells
- H10F 71/138: {Manufacture of transparent electrodes, e.g. transparent conductive oxides [TCO] or indium tin oxide [ITO] electrodes}
- H10F 77/122: comprising only Group IV materials
- H10F 77/244: {made of transparent conductive layers, e.g. transparent conductive oxide [TCO] layers}
- Y02E 10/50: Photovoltaic [PV] energy
- Y02E 10/547: Monocrystalline silicon PV cells
- H10F: INORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES SENSITIVE TO INFRARED RADIATION, LIGHT, ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION OF SHORTER WAVELENGTH OR CORPUSCULAR RADIATION
- Y02E: REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION

## Abstract

Materials, devices, and methods for enhancing performance of electronic devices such as solar cells, fuels cells, LEDs, thermoelectric conversion devices, and other electronic devices are disclosed and described. A diamond-like carbon electronic device can include a conductive diamond-like carbon cathode having specified carbon, hydrogen and sp2 bonded carbon contents. In some cases, the sp2 bonded carbon content may be sufficient to provide the conductive diamond-like carbon material with a visible light transmissivity of greater than about 0.70. A charge carrier separation layer can be coupled adjacent and between the diamond-like carbon cathode and an anode. The conductive diamond-like carbon material of the present invention can be useful for any other application which can benefit from the use of conductive and transparent electrodes which are also chemically inert, radiation damage resistance, and are simple to manufacture.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A diamond-like carbon electronic device, comprising:
a) a diamond-like carbon cathode including a conductive diamond-like carbon material having an sp3 bonded carbon content from about 30 atom % to about 90 atom %, a hydrogen content from 0 atom % to about 30 atom %, and an sp2 bonded carbon content from about 10 atom % to about 70 atom %;
b) a charge carrier separation layer adjacent the diamond-like carbon cathode; and
c) an anode adjacent the charge carrier separation layer opposite the diamond-like carbon cathode.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the conductive diamond-like carbon material further includes a dopant selected from the group consisting of B, N, Si, P, Li, or combinations thereof.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the sp2 bonded carbon content is sufficient to provide the conductive diamond-like carbon material with a visible light transmissivity of greater than about 0.70.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the sp2 bonded carbon content is from about 35 atom % to about 60 atom %.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the hydrogen content is from about 15 atom % to about 25 atom %.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the diamond-like carbon cathode and anode further include a conductive additive selected from the group consisting of conductive metal particles, carbon nanotubes, graphite, conductive nanoparticles, and combinations thereof.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the charge carrier separation layer is a semiconductor layer.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the charge carrier separation layer comprises at least a portion of a p-n or p-i-n junction and the diamond-like carbon electronic device is a solar cell.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The device of claim 7, wherein the semiconductor layer comprises a member selected from the group consisting of silicon, gallium arsenide, gallium indium phosphide, gallium indium nitride, copper indium diselenide, cadmium telluride, and composites or combinations thereof.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The device of claim 9, wherein the semiconductor layer comprises silicon.

### Claim 11 (depends on 8)

The device of claim 8, wherein the charge carrier separation layer further comprises multiple p-n or p-i-n junctions to form a multi-junction solar cell.

### Claim 12 (depends on 10)

The device of claim 10, wherein the charge carrier separation layer further includes an n-doped region and a p-doped region.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The device of claim 10, wherein the charge carrier separation layer includes a p-doped region and the diamond-like carbon cathode includes an n-doped region.

### Claim 14 (depends on 8)

The device of claim 8, wherein the charge carrier separation layer is substantially planar.

### Claim 15 (depends on 8)

The device of claim 8, wherein the diamond-like carbon cathode is a single layer and is configured as a passivation layer and an anti-reflection layer.

### Claim 16 (depends on 12)

The device of claim 12, wherein the diamond-like carbon electronic device is a fuel cell.

### Claim 17 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the charge separation carrier layer comprises a crystalline material.

### Claim 18 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the diamond-like carbon electronic cathode consists essentially of the conductive diamond-like carbon.

### Claim 19 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the charge carrier separation layer is compositionally graded.

### Claim 20 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the charge carrier separation layer has a thickness from about 10 μm to about 300 μm.