Flexible photovoltaic device

• US 4,612,409 A
• Filed: 11/04/1982
• Issued: 09/16/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/1981
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kanegafuchi Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Kanegafuchi Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Tsuge, Kazunori, Hamakawa, Yoshihiro, Tawada, Yoshihisa, Izumina, Masanobu
• Primary Examiner(s): Weisstuch, Aaron
• Application Number:
  US06/439,627
• Time in Patent Office: 1,412 Days
• Field of Search: 136/244, 136/245, 136/256, 136/258 PC, 136/258 AM
• US Class Current: 136/244
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/03921 including only elements of Group IV of the Periodic Table
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/03926 comprising a flexible substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/0445 including thin film solar cells, e.g. single thin film a-Si, CIS or CdTe solar cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/0504 specially adapted for series or parallel connection of solar cells in a module
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/075 the potential barriers being only of the PIN type, e.g. amorphous silicon PIN solar cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/202 including only elements of Group IV of the Periodic Table
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/548 Amorphous silicon PV cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product

Abstract

A flexible photovoltaic device includes a flexible substrate and a photovoltaic device body. The flexible substrate is a metal foil or film provided with an electric insulating layer of a material having an electric conductivity of not more than 10^-7 (Ω·cm.)^-1 during of light impingement and selected from a heat resistant polymer, a metal oxide, a crystalline or amorphous silicon compound, and an organometallic compound.

Claims

1. A photovoltaic device comprising a substrate including a metal foil and an overlying electric insulating thin film having an electric conductivity of not more than about 10^-7 (Ω

·

cm.)^-1 during light impingement and a photovoltaic device body of non-single-crystal semiconductors, the device body being formed over said electric insulating thin film, wherein said electric insulating thin film includes a polymer layer contiguous to said metal foil and an inorganic material layer contiguous to an electrode for said photovoltaic device body.

2. In an amorphous silicon solar battery of the type comprising a flexible and heat resistant substrate, at least two lower electrodes formed on said substrate, an amorphous silicon film formed on said lower electrodes, and at least two upper electrodes on said amorphous silicon film, the improvement which comprises an inorganic insulating film provided between said substrate and said lower electrodes and a heat resistant resin film provided between said substrate and said inorganic insulating film.

3. The amorphous silicon solar battery according to claim 2 wherein said substrate is made of metal.