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US 8,236,600 B2Granted
Joining method for preparing an inverted metamorphic multijunction solar cell
AssigneeEmcore Solar Power, Inc.
InventorArthur Cornfeld
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of manufacturing a solar cell by providing a first semiconductor substrate and depositing a first sequence of layers of semiconductor material to form a first solar subcell, including a first bond layer disposed on the top of the first sequence of layers. A second semiconductor substrate is provided, and on the top surface of the second substrate a second sequence of layers of semiconductor material is deposited forming at least a second solar subcell. A second bond layer is disposed on the top of said second sequence of layers. The first solar subcell is mounted on top of the second solar subcell by joining the first bond layer to the second bond layer in an ultra high vacuum chamber, and the first semiconductor substrate is removed.
Claims22
A method of manufacturing a solar cell comprising:
- providing a first semiconductor substrate;
- depositing on the first semiconductor substrate a first sequence of layers of semiconductor material to form a first subassembly comprising an upper first solar subcell on said first semiconductor substrate, a middle second solar subcell over said upper first solar subcell, a graded interlayer over said middle second solar subcell, and a lower third solar subcell over said graded interlayer including a first lattice matched semiconductor layer disposed on a top surface of said first sequence of layers, wherein said first lattice matched semiconductor layer includes InGaAs;
- providing a second semiconductor substrate, wherein the second semiconductor substrate comprises germanium;
- depositing on a top surface of the second semiconductor substrate a second sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a second subassembly comprising at least a third subcell including a second lattice matched semiconductor layer disposed on a top surface of said second sequence of layers;
- joining the first subassembly and the second subassembly by positioning the first lattice matched semiconductor layer of the first subassembly adjacent to the second lattice matched semiconductor layer of the second subassembly to form a bond joining the first and second assemblies, thus forming a multijunction device;
- and
- removing the first semiconductor substrate to expose an uppermost subcell of the multijunction device.
4 more elements
A method of manufacturing a solar cell comprising:
- providing a first semiconductor substrate;
- depositing on the first semiconductor substrate a first sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a first subassembly comprising at least a first subcell and a second subcell including a first lattice matched InGaAs semiconductor layer on a top surface of said first sequence of layers;
- providing a second semiconductor substrate;
- depositing on the second semiconductor substrate a second sequence of layers of semiconductor material foaming a second subassembly comprising at least a third subcell including a second lattice matched InGaAs semiconductor layer disposed on a top surface of said second sequence of layers;
- positioning the first lattice matched InGaAs semiconductor layer of the first subassembly adjacent the second lattice matched InGaAs semiconductor layer of the second subassembly, and bonding the first sequence of layers to the second sequence of layers to join the first and second subassemblies and form a multijunction device;
- mounting a surrogate third substrate on top of the second semiconductor substrate;
- and
- removing the first semiconductor substrate from the multijunction device to expose an uppermost subcell of the device and form a bonded semiconductor structure.
5 more elements
A method of manufacturing a solar cell comprising:
- providing a first GaAs semiconductor substrate;
- depositing on the first semiconductor substrate a first sequence of layers of semiconductor material to form a first subassembly including at least a first solar subcell and a first lattice matched InGaAs semiconductor layer disposed on a top surface of said first sequence of layers;
- providing a second Ge semiconductor substrate;
- depositing on a top surface of the second Ge semiconductor substrate a second sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a second subassembly including at least a second solar subcell and a second lattice matched InGaAs semiconductor layer disposed on a top surface of said second sequence of layers;
- joining the first subassembly and the second subassembly by juxtaposing the first lattice matched InGaAs semiconductor layer of the first subassembly adjacent to the second lattice matched InGaAs semiconductor layer of the second subassembly in ultra high vacuum at approximately 400° C. to form a bond joining the first and second subassemblies, thus forming a device;
- mounting a surrogate third substrate on the second semiconductor substrate;
- and
- removing the first GaAs semiconductor substrate from the device to expose an uppermost subcell of the device and form a bonded semiconductor structure.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.