Front electrode including transparent conductive coating on patterned glass substrate for use in photovoltaic device and method of making same
AssigneeGuardian Industries Corp.
InventorsYiwei Lu, Willem den Boer
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Abstract
This invention relates to a photovoltaic device including an electrode such as a front electrode/contact. In certain example embodiments, the front electrode of the photovoltaic device includes a multi-layered transparent conductive coating which is sputter-deposited on a textured surface of a patterned glass substrate. In certain example embodiments, a maximum transmission area of the substantially transparent conductive front electrode is located under a peak area of a quantum efficiency (QE) curve of the photovoltaic device and a light source spectrum used to power the photovoltaic device.
Claims13
A method of making an electrode structure for a photovoltaic device, the method comprising:
- providing a glass substrate;
- etching and/or patterning at least one major surface of the glass substrate so as to form a textured surface of the glass substrate;
- sputter-depositing a substantially conformal front electrode on the textured surface of the glass substrate, the front electrode being substantially conformal so that both major surfaces of the front electrode are textured in a manner similar to the textured surface of the glass substrate, and wherein the substantially conformal front electrode formed on the textured surface of the glass substrate is adapted to be provided at a light incident side of a photovoltaic device;
- and
- determining a quantum efficiency (QE) curve for a photovoltaic device, and forming the front electrode in a manner so that a maximum transmission area of the front electrode is located under a peak area of a combination of the QE curve and a light source spectrum to be used to power the photovoltaic device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.