US2018269346A1PendingUtilityA1

Inverted metamorphic multijunction solar cells having a permanent supporting substrate

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Assignee: SOLAERO TECH CORPPriority: Mar 10, 2009Filed: May 24, 2018Published: Sep 20, 2018
Est. expiryMar 10, 2029(~2.6 yrs left)· nominal 20-yr term from priority
Inventors:Arthur CornfeldJeff Steinfeldt
Y02E10/544H01L 31/184H01L 31/0304H01L 31/1844Y02P70/521H01L 31/1856H01L 31/03048H01L 31/06875H01L 31/1892H01L 31/048H01L 31/0725H01L 31/1848H10F 77/12485H10F 77/1248H10F 77/124H10F 71/1278H10F 71/1274H10F 71/1272H10F 71/139H10F 71/127H10F 19/80H10F 10/1425H10F 10/161Y02P70/50
67
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Claims

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method of manufacturing a solar cell that includes providing a semiconductor growth substrate; depositing on said growth substrate a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell; applying a metal contact layer over said sequence of layers; affixing the adhesive polyimide surface of a permanent supporting substrate directly over said metal contact layer and permanently bonding it thereto by a thermocompressive technique; and removing the semiconductor growth substrate.

Claims

exact text as granted — not AI-modified
What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of manufacturing a solar cell comprising:
 providing a growth substrate;   depositing on said growth substrate a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell;   providing a glass surrogate substrate;   bonding an adhesive polyimide layer to the glass surrogate substrate;   adjoining the surface of the adhesive polyimide layer of the glass surrogate substrate to the surface of the sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell and permanently bonding it thereto by a thermocompressive technique; and   removing the semiconductor substrate.   
     
     
         2 . A method as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the semiconductor substrate is removed after the surrogate substrate has been attached by grinding, etching, or epitaxial lift-off. 
     
     
         3 . A method as defined in  claim 1 , further comprising forming grid electrodes on the surface of the layers of semiconductor material to form a top or light-incident surface of the solar cell. 
     
     
         4 . A method as defined in  claim 1 , further comprising attaching a cover glass over the top surface of the solar cell. 
     
     
         5 . A method as defined in  claim 1 , wherein said step of depositing a sequence of layers of semiconductor material includes forming a first solar subcell on said substrate having a first band gap; forming a second solar subcell over said first subcell having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; forming a grading interlayer over said second subcell having a third band gap larger than said second band gap; forming a third solar subcell having a fourth band gap smaller than said second band gap such that said third subcell is lattice mismatched with respect to said second subcell. 
     
     
         6 . A method of manufacturing a solar cell as defined in  claim 1 , wherein said growth substrate is composed of GaAs. 
     
     
         7 . A method of manufacturing a solar cell as defined in  claim 5 , wherein said first solar subcell is composed of an InGa(Al)P emitter region and an InGa(Al)P base region. 
     
     
         8 . A method as defined in  claim 5 , wherein said grading interlayer is composed of (In x Ga 1-x ) y  Al 1-y As, wherein 0<x<1 and 0<y<1 with x and y selected such that the band gap of each interlayer remains constant throughout its thickness. 
     
     
         9 . A method as defined in  claim 5 , wherein said first subcell is composed of an GaInP, GaAs, GaInAs, GaAsSb, or GaInAsN emitter region and an GaAs, GaInAs, GaAsSb, or GaInAsN base region, and the second subcell is composed of an InGaP emitter layer and a GaAs or GaInAs base layer. 
     
     
         10 . The method as defined in  claim 5 , wherein the lower solar subcell is composed of an InGaAs base and emitter layer, or a InGaAs base layer and a InGaP emitter layer. 
     
     
         11 . The method as defined as  claim 5 , wherein the graded interlayer is compositionally graded to lattice match the middle subcell on one side and the lower subcell on the other side, and is composed of (In x Ga 1-x ) y  Al 1-y As, wherein 0<x<1 and 0<y<1 with x and y selected such that the band gap of the interlayer remains constant throughout its thickness and greater than said second band gap. 
     
     
         12 . The method as defined in  claim 12 , wherein the graded interlayer has approximately a 1.5 eV band gap throughout its thickness. 
     
     
         13 . A method as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the step of bonding an adhesive polyimide to the permanent glass surrogate substrate is performed at a curing temperature above 350 degrees C.; and the step of adjoining the cured adhesive polyimide layer surface and the glass surrogate substrate to the surface of the sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell is performed at a temperature of about 300 degrees C. 
     
     
         14 . A method of manufacturing a solar cell comprising:
 providing a semiconductor growth substrate;   depositing on said growth substrate a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell;   applying a metal contact layer over said sequence of layers;   providing a permanent supporting substrate with an adhesive surface;   affixing the adhesive surface of a permanent supporting substrate directly over said metal contact layer and permanently bonding it thereto by a thermocompressive technique; and   removing the semiconductor growth substrate.   
     
     
         15 . A method as defined in  claim 14 , wherein the semiconductor substrate is removed after the permanent supporting substrate has been attached by grinding, etching, or epitaxial lift-off. 
     
     
         16 . A method as defined in  claim 14 , further comprising forming grid electrodes on the surface of the layers of semiconductor material to form a top or light-incident surface of the solar cell. 
     
     
         17 . A method as defined in  claim 14 , further comprising attaching a cover glass to the top surface of the solar cell. 
     
     
         18 . A method as defined in  claim 14 , wherein said step of depositing a sequence of layers of semiconductor material includes forming a first solar subcell on said substrate having a first band gap; forming a second solar subcell over said first subcell having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; forming a grading interlayer over said second subcell having a third band gap larger than said second band gap; forming a third solar subcell having a fourth band gap smaller than said second band gap such that said third subcell is lattice mismatched with respect to said second subcell. 
     
     
         19 . A method of manufacturing a solar cell as defined in  claim 14 , wherein said growth substrate is composed of GaAs. 
     
     
         20 . A method of manufacturing a solar cell as defined in  claim 14 , wherein said adhesive surface is a polyimide layer.

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