Electrically contactable grids manufacture
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsLawrence A. Clevenger, Rainer K. Krause, Zhengwen O. Li, Kevin S. Petrarca, Roger A. Quon, Carl Radens, Brian C. Sapp
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for manufacturing one or more electrically contactable grids on at least one surface of a semiconductor substrate for use in a solar cell product includes the following. A heat-sensitive masking agent layer is deposited on the surface of the substrate of the solar cell product. The masking agent layer is locally heated to form a grid mask. Selected parts of the masking agent layer defined by locally heating are removed to form openings in the grid mask. A contact metallization is applied on the grid mask.
Claims18
A method for manufacturing one or more electrically contactable grids on a surface of a semiconductor substrate for use in a solar cell product, comprising:
- depositing a heat-sensitive masking agent layer on the surface of the semiconductor substrate of the solar cell product;
- locally heating said masking agent layer to form a grid mask;
- removing selected parts of the masking agent layer defined by local heating to form openings in said grid mask;
- and,
- applying contact metallization on said grid mask,
- wherein locally heating comprises using a patterned heat stamp containing a structure of the grid mask.
A method for manufacturing one or more electrically contactable grids on a surface of a semiconductor substrate for use in a solar cell product, comprising:
- depositing a heat-sensitive masking agent layer on the surface of the semiconductor substrate of the solar cell product;
- locally heating said masking agent layer to form a grid mask;
- removing selected parts of the masking agent layer defined by local heating to form openings in said grid mask;
- and,
- applying contact metallization on said grid mask,
- wherein applying the contact metallization comprises:
- depositing a seed layer to provide a seed grid defined by the openings of the grid mask;
- plating contact material on top of metal spots of the seed grid;
- and,
- removing the contact material plated within openings of the seed grid, by selectively etching the contact material plated within the openings of the seed grid.
A method for manufacturing one or more electrically contactable grids on a surface of a semiconductor substrate for use in a solar cell product, comprising:
- depositing a heat-sensitive masking agent layer on the surface of the semiconductor substrate of the solar cell product;
- locally heating said masking agent layer to form a grid mask, by using a patterned heat stamp containing a structure of the grid mask;
- removing selected parts of the masking agent layer defined by local heating to form openings in said grid mask;
- applying contact metallization on said grid mask;
- one of:
- depositing an antireflective layer on the surface of the semiconductor substrate;
- depositing a conductive layer on the surface of the semiconductor substrate;
- depositing a conductive layer on an antireflective layer deposited on the surface of the semiconductor substrate,
- wherein the masking agent includes a copolymer comprising two or more immiscible polymeric block components which can be separated into self assembled phases by heating,
- and wherein the copolymer is a block copolymer comprising at least a first and a second polymeric block component A and B being immiscible with each other such that the block copolymer contains any numbers of the polymeric block components A and B arranged in any manner.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.