TRANSPARENT SUBSTRATE WITH TRANSPARENT CONDUCTIVE FILM, METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME, AND PHOTOELECTRIC CONVERSION ELEMENT INCLUDING THE SUBSTRATE

• US 20090258205A1
• Filed: 06/17/2009
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nippon Sheet Glass Company Limited (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nippon Sheet Glass Company Limited (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: SUEYOSHI, Yukio, FUJISAWA, Akira, YOSHIDA, Hidemasa, SETO, Yasunori
• Granted Patent: US 7,846,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 428/216
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 15/00 Surface treatment of glass, not in the form of fibres or filaments, by etching etching or surface-brightening compositions, in general C09K13/00
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/22 with other inorganic material C03C17/34, C03C17/44 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 2217/77 Coatings having a rough surface
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/02366 of the substrate or of a layer on the substrate, e.g. textured ITO/glass substrate or superstrate, textured polymer layer on glass substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/1884 Manufacture of transparent electrodes, e.g. TCO, ITO
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/50 Photovoltaic [PV] energy
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/24975 No layer or component greater than 5 mils thick
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/265 1 mil or less

Abstract

The present invention provides a transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film that is thin but has a surface with concavities and convexities of increased height. A manufacturing method of the present invention includes a process of forming a transparent conductive film containing crystalline metal oxide as its main component on a transparent substrate by a pyrolytic oxidation method. In the method, a gaseous material containing a metal compound, an oxidizing material, and hydrogen chloride is supplied onto the transparent substrate. The process includes sequentially: a first step in which a mole ratio of the hydrogen chloride to the metal compound in the gaseous material is 0.5 to 5; and a second step in which the mole ratio is 2 to 10 and is higher than the mole ratio to be employed in the first step. With the present invention, a transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film can be provided that has a haze ratio of at least 15% and includes a transparent conductive film whose thickness is 300 nm to 750 nm.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film, comprising a transparent substrate and a transparent conductive film that is formed on the transparent substrate and that contains crystalline metal oxide as its main component,

wherein the transparent conductive film has a thickness of 300 nm to 750 nm, and the transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film has a haze ratio of at least 15%.

11. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 10, wherein with respect to peak areas corresponding to orientation planes of the crystalline oxide calculated from an X-ray diffraction pattern, when the peak area of a (110) plane is set at 100, all the orientation planes other than the (110) plane each have a peak area of 80 or smaller.

12. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 11, wherein a (211) plane has the largest peak area after the (110) plane.

13. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 10, wherein the average of elevation angles of convexities present at a surface of the transparent conductive film is 20 degrees to 30 degrees.

14. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 10, wherein the average of diameters of convexities present at a surface of the transparent conductive film is 300 nm to 500 nm.

15. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 10, wherein the transparent conductive film has a surface that includes no dome-shaped convexities projecting locally.

16. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 10, wherein the metal oxide is tin oxide.

17. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 10, further comprising at least one undercoating layer between the transparent substrate and the transparent conductive film.

18. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 10, further comprising two undercoating layers between the transparent substrate and the transparent conductive film.

19. The transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 18, wherein a first undercoating layer located on a side of the transparent substrate has a thickness of 10 nm to 100 nm and is formed of a material having a refractive index of 1.6 to 2.4 while a second undercoating layer located on a side of the transparent conductive film has a thickness of 10 nm to 100 nm and is formed of a material having a refractive index of 1.4 to 1.8.

20. A photoelectric conversion element comprising a transparent substrate with a transparent conductive film according to claim 10.