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US 9,960,287 B2Granted
Solar cells and methods of fabrication thereof
AssigneePicasolar, Inc.
InventorsSeth Daniel Shumate, Douglas Arthur Hutchings, Hafeezuddin Mohammed, Matthew Young, Scott Little
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A passivation layer is deposited on a first portion of a region of the solar cell. A grid line is deposited on a second portion of the region. The passivation layer is annealed to drive chemical species from the passivation layer to deactivate an electrical activity of a dopant in the first portion of the region of the solar cell.
Claims23
A method to manufacture a solar cell comprising:
- depositing a passivation layer comprising chemical species on a first portion of a region of the solar cell, wherein a grid line is deposited on a second portion of the region;
- annealing the grid line at a first temperature to form an electrical contact on the second portion;
- annealing the passivation layer at a second temperature that is less than the first temperature to drive the chemical species from the passivation layer to deactivate an electrical activity of the dopant in a surface portion of the first portion while having the electrical activity of the dopant in a remaining portion of the first portion underneath the surface portion intact by the annealing at the second temperature, wherein the depth of the surface portion between the passivation layer and the remaining portion is less than 0.2 microns.
A method to manufacture a solar cell, comprising:
- depositing a passivation layer comprising chemical species on a region of the solar cell, the region comprising a first portion and a second portion;
- depositing a grid line on the passivation layer over the second portion;
- annealing the grid line at a first temperature to form an electrical contact on the second portion;
- and
- annealing the passivation layer at a second temperature that is less than the first temperature to drive the chemical species from the passivation layer to deactivate an electrical activity of a dopant in a surface portion of the first portion while having the electrical activity of the dopant in a remaining portion of the first portion underneath the surface portion intact by the annealing at the second temperature, wherein the depth of the surface portion between the passivation layer and the remaining portion is less than 0.2 microns.
2 more elements
A method to manufacture a solar cell comprising:
- supplying chemical species to a first portion of a region of a solar cell placed in a chamber, wherein a passivation layer comprising the chemical species is deposited on the first portion, and a grid line is deposited over a second portion of the region;
- and
- deactivating an electrical activity of a dopant in a surface portion of the first portion using the chemical species from the passivation layer while having the electrical activity of the dopant in a remaining portion of the first portion underneath the surface portion intact by applying a bias voltage to the solar cell, wherein the depth of the surface portion between the passivation layer and the remaining portion is less than 0.2 microns.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.