Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080226841 | Diamond-like carbon films with low dielectric constant and high mechanical strength - The present invention discloses a method including: providing a substrate; and sequentially stacking layers of two or more diamond-like carbon (DLC) films over the substrate to form a composite dielectric film, the composite dielectric film having a k value of about 1.5 or lower, the composite dielectric film having a Young's modulus of elasticity of about 25 GigaPascals or higher. | 09-18-2008 |
20080241413 | Plasma tool for forming porous diamond films for semiconductor applications - A plasma tool may be provided to facilitate the deposition of diamond films on substrates. The plasma tool provides a heater in the form of a screen whose position with respect to a substrate may be adjusted. A mixture of hydrocarbon and hydrogen gases may be ejected from a spray shower head type spray nozzle through the screen and onto the substrate. Because of the high speed of the ejected gas mixture, very high flow rates and relatively high reaction rates may be achieved in some embodiments without using excessive temperatures. A chuck may hold the substrate for deposition. The chuck may include a liquid coolant system to cool the substrate to avoid excessive temperatures that might otherwise damage other components on the substrate. | 10-02-2008 |
20090065788 | Semiconductor substrate with islands of diamond and resulting devices - Disclosed is a method of forming a substrate having islands of diamond (or other material, such as diamond-like carbon), as well as integrated circuit devices formed from such a substrate. A diamond island can form part of the thermal solution for an integrated circuit formed on the substrate, and the diamond island can also provide part of a stress engineering solution to improve performance of the integrated circuit. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 03-12-2009 |
20090280050 | Apparatus and Methods for Casting Multi-Crystalline Silicon Ingots - Apparatuses and methods for making a multi-crystalline silicon ingot by directional solidification comprising two or more moveable heat shields located beneath the crucible, the heat shields being opened in a controlled manner to remove heat and produce a high quality silicon ingot. | 11-12-2009 |
20090288591 | Crystal Growth Apparatus for Solar Cell Manufacturing - The present invention(s) provide an apparatus for forming a rod, which is also sometimes referred to as an ingot or boule, which can be subsequently diced to form multiple substrates that may be utilized to form a solar cell device. The substrate may be a monocrystalline, or polycrystalline, substrate made by use of a CZ type crystal pulling technology. In one embodiment, the crystal pulling apparatus is used to form a substrate used form a solar cell device. In one embodiment, a feed material is delivered to a crucible using a vibratory feeder assembly and is heated using a novel heater assembly to allow a CZ type crystal pulling process to be performed. | 11-26-2009 |
20100108130 | Thin Interdigitated backside contact solar cell and manufacturing process thereof - A design and manufacturing method for an interdigitated backside contact photovoltaic (PV) solar cell less than 100 μm thick are disclosed. A porous silicon layer is formed on a wafer substrate. Portions of the PV cell are then formed using diffusion, epitaxy and autodoping from the substrate. All backside processing of the solar cell (junctions, passivation layer, metal contacts to the N | 05-06-2010 |
20100108134 | Thin two sided single crystal solar cell and manufacturing process thereof - A design and manufacturing method for a photovoltaic (PV) solar cell less than 100 μm thick are disclosed. A porous silicon layer is formed on a wafer substrate. Portions of the PV cell are then formed using diffusion, epitaxy and autodoping from the substrate. All front side processing of the solar cell (junctions, passivation layer, anti-reflective coating, contacts to the N | 05-06-2010 |
20100276758 | STRESSED SEMICONDUCTOR USING CARBON AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING THE SAME - A stressed semiconductor using carbon is provided. At least one carbon layer containing diamond is formed either below a semiconductor layer or above a semiconductor device. The carbon layer induces stress in the semiconductor layer, thereby increasing carrier mobility in the device channel region. The carbon layer may be selectively formed or patterned to localize the induced stress. | 11-04-2010 |
20110056532 | Method for manufacturing thin crystalline solar cells pre-assembled on a panel - A method for fabricating a photovoltaic (PV) cell panel wherein each of a plurality of silicon donor wafers has a separation layer formed on its upper surface, e.g., porous anodically etched silicon. On each donor wafer, a PV cell is then partially completed including at least part of inter-cell interconnect, after which plural donor wafers are laminated to a backside substrate or frontside. All of the donor wafers are then separated from the partially completed PV cells in an exfoliation process, followed by simultaneous completion of the remaining PV cell structures on PV cells. Finally, a second lamination to a frontside glass or a backside panel completes the PV cell panel. The separated donor wafers may be reused in forming other PV cells. Use of epitaxial deposition to form the layers of the PV cells enables improved dopant distributions and sharper junction profiles for improved PV cell efficiency. | 03-10-2011 |
20120040487 | MWT ARCHITECTURE FOR THIN SI SOLAR CELLS - Methods of fabricating metal wrap through solar cells and modules for thin silicon solar cells, including epitaxial silicon solar cells, are described. These metal wrap through solar cells have a planar back contact geometry for the base and emitter contacts. Fabrication of a metal wrap through solar cell may comprise: providing a photovoltaic device attached at the emitter side of the device to a solar glass by an encapsulant, the device including busbars on the device emitter; forming vias through the device base and emitter, the vias terminating in the busbars; depositing a conformal dielectric film over the surface of the vias and the back surface of the base; removing portions of the conformal dielectric film from the ends of the vias for exposing the busbars and from field areas of the base; and forming separate electrical contacts to the busbars and the field areas on the back surface of the solar cell. The solar cells may comprise epitaxially deposited silicon and may include an epitaxially deposited back surface field. | 02-16-2012 |
20130056044 | PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULE FABRICATION WITH THIN SINGLE CRYSTAL EPITAXIAL SILICON DEVICES - Photovoltaic modules including a plurality of solar cells bonded to a module back sheet are described herein, wherein each solar cell includes a superstrate bonded to a front side of a photovoltaic device to facilitate handling of very thin photovoltaic devices during fabrication of the module. Modules may also include module front sheets and the solar cells may include bottom sheets. The modules may be made of flexible materials, and may be foldable. Fabrication processes include tabbing photovoltaic devices prior to attaching the individual superstrates. | 03-07-2013 |
20130065350 | Thin Interdigitated Backside Contact Solar Cell and Manufacturing Process Thereof - A design and manufacturing method for an interdigitated backside contact photovoltaic (PV) solar cell less than 100 μm thick are disclosed. A porous silicon layer is formed on a wafer substrate. Portions of the PV cell are then formed using diffusion, epitaxy and autodoping from the substrate. All backside processing of the solar cell (junctions, passivation layer, metal contacts to the N | 03-14-2013 |
20130180578 | Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells - Methods are described for fabricating HIT solar cells, including double heterojunction and hybrid heterojunction-homojunction solar cells, with very thin single crystal silicon wafers, where the silicon wafer may be less than 80 microns thick, and even less than 50 microns thick. The methods overcome potential issues with handling these very thin wafers by using a process including epitaxial silicon deposition on a growth substrate, partial cell fabrication, attachment to a support substrate and then separation from the growth substrate. Some embodiments of the present invention may include a solar cell device architecture comprising the combination of a heterostructure on the front side of the device with a homojunction at the rear of the device. Furthermore, device performance may be enhanced by including a dielectric stack on the backside of the device for reflecting long wavelength infrared radiation. | 07-18-2013 |
20150059847 | Passivated Emitter Rear Locally Patterned Epitaxial Solar Cell - Passivated emitter rear local epitaxy (PERL-e) thin Si solar cells may be formed with a heavily doped epitaxial back surface field (BSF) layer, which is patterned to form well spaced point contacts to the silicon base on the rear of the solar cell. The back side of the cell may be finished with a dielectric passivation layer and a metallization layer for making electrical contact to the cell. PERL-e thick Si solar cells may be formed with heavily doped epitaxial films as the back point contacts, where the point contacts are defined by the provision of a selectively patterned thermal oxide on the rear wafer surface. Furthermore, absorption of longer wavelength, infrared (IR), light in thin silicon solar cells may be improved by the addition of a dielectric stack on the rear surface of the solar cell (a back reflector), the stack acting to reflect the longer wavelength light back through the active layers of the solar cell. | 03-05-2015 |