# US 8,569,094 B2 · Selective removal and contacting of thin film solar cells

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- Number: US 8,569,094 B2
- Document ID: US8569094B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 12/997,041
- Filed: 2009-06-12
- Published: 2011-04-21
- Granted: 2013-10-29
- Earliest claimed: 2008-06-13
- Assignees: Solibro Research AB
- Applicants: Lars Stolt; Olle Lundberg; Peter Neretnieks; Johannes Segner
- Inventors: Lars Stolt; Olle Lundberg; Peter Neretnieks; Johannes Segner
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8569094B2

## CPC

- H10F 77/935: {for photovoltaic devices or modules}
- B24C 1/04: for treating only selected parts of a surface, e.g. for carving stone or glass
- B24C 3/322: {for electrical components}
- H10F 19/31: having multiple laterally adjacent thin-film photovoltaic cells deposited on the same substrate
- H10F 19/33: Patterning processes to connect the photovoltaic cells, e.g. laser cutting of conductive or active layers
- Y02E 10/50: Photovoltaic [PV] energy
- H10F: INORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES SENSITIVE TO INFRARED RADIATION, LIGHT, ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION OF SHORTER WAVELENGTH OR CORPUSCULAR RADIATION
- B24C: ABRASIVE OR RELATED BLASTING WITH PARTICULATE MATERIAL
- Y02E: REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION

## Abstract

A method for manufacturing a thin film solar cell device including a CIGS based thin film solar cell module (17). Edge deletion by selective removal of a multilayer structure (13) that includes at least a front contact (15) and a CIGS layer (7) to expose the back contact (5) in at least a peripheral area (22) in the circumferential region (21) of the module (17) adjacent to a first longitudinal thin film solar cell segment (18) allows for contacting of the module (17) by attaching at least a first contacting element (27) to the back contact (5). Preferably a blasting operation using simultaneous supply of blasting agents and gathering of debris in a blasting chamber (32) arranged on the thin film solar cell module (17) is used for the selective removal.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for manufacturing a thin film solar cell device comprising the steps of:
providing a substrate (2) with a back contact (5), wherein the back contact (5) is patterned into a plurality of longitudinal segments;
providing a multilayer structure (13) with at least a CIGS layer (7) and a front contact (15) on the substrate (2), wherein the multilayer structure (13) is patterned into a plurality of longitudinal segments, each of them overlapping a respective longitudinal segment of the back contact (5) and together forming longitudinal thin film solar cell segments (18) that are serially connected in order to form a thin film solar cell module (17); characterized in that the method further comprises the subsequent steps of
selectively removing the multilayer structure (13) in at least a first peripheral area (22) of the thin film solar cell module (17) to expose the back contact (5) in at least a first longitudinal portion (3) of the first peripheral area (22) adjacent a first longitudinal thin film solar cell segment (18) by blasting; and
connecting a first contacting means (27) to the exposed back contact (5).

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the blasting is performed without the use of a mask.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of blasting comprises arranging a blasting chamber (32) at a predefined position adjacent to the top surface of a thin film solar cell module (17) and moving the thin film solar cell module (17) and the blasting chamber (32) relative to each other as blasting agents (36) are supplied and debris (37) are gathered within the blasting chamber (32).

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method according to claim 3, wherein the step of blasting comprises the step of providing the blasting agent (36) to the blasting chamber (36) in a sequence of predetermined doses.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of edge deletion by selectively removing the multilayer structure (13) further comprises the step of exposing the back contact in a second longitudinal portion (4) of a second peripheral area (22) of the thin film solar cell module (17) adjacent to a last longitudinal thin film solar segment (20), the first and the second longitudinal portions (3, 4) being at opposite sides of the thin film solar cell module (17).

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

A method according to claim 5, further comprising connecting a second contacting means (29) to the back contact (5) in the second longitudinal portion (4) of the second peripheral area (23).

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of removing the multilayer structure (13) and the back contact (5) in at least a third peripheral area (24) to expose the substrate (2).

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of connecting the contacting means (27, 29) to the back contact (5) comprises ultrasonic welding.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of connecting the contacting means (27, 29) to the back contact (5) comprises thermocompression bonding.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of connecting the contacting means (27, 29) to the back contact (5) comprises electric spot welding.

### Claim 11 (depends on 3)

The method according to claim 3, wherein the selective removal using blasting is controlled by varying the speed of the relative motion between the thin film solar cell module (17) and the blasting chamber (32).

### Claim 12 (depends on 2)

The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of blasting comprises arranging a blasting chamber (32) at a predefined position adjacent to the top surface of a thin film solar cell module (17) and moving the thin film solar cell module (17) and the blasting chamber (32) relative to each other as blasting agents (36) are supplied and debris (37) are gathered within the blasting chamber (32).

### Claim 13 (depends on 4)

The method according to claim 4, wherein the selective removal using blasting is controlled by varying the speed of the relative motion between the thin film solar cell module (17) and the blasting chamber (32).