Solder structures for fabrication of inverted metamorphic multijunction solar cells

• US 8,187,907 B1
• Filed: 05/07/2010
• Issued: 05/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Solaero Technologies Corp.
• Original Assignee: Emcore Solar Power, Inc. (Emcore Corporation)
• Inventors: Newman, Fred
• Primary Examiner(s): Garber, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abdelaziez, Yasser
• Application Number:
  US12/775,946
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• Field of Search: 438/66, 438/67, 438/692, 438/464, 438/959
• US Class Current: 438/66
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/022425 for 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 31/06875 inverted grown metamorphic [IMM] multiple junction solar cells, e.g. III-V compounds inverted metamorphic multi-junction cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/544 Solar cells from Group III-V materials
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 438/959 Mechanical polishing of wafer

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a solar cell by providing a first substrate; depositing on the first substrate a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell including a top subcell and a bottom subcell; forming a metal back contact over the bottom subcell; forming a group of discrete, spaced-apart first bonding elements over the surface of the back metal contact; attaching a surrogate substrate on top of the back metal contact using the bonding elements; and removing the first substrate to expose the surface of the top subcell.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a solar cell comprising:

providing a first substrate;

depositing on the first substrate a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell including a top subcell and a bottom subcell;

forming a metal back contact over the bottom subcell;

forming a group of discrete, spaced-apart first bonding elements over the surface of the back metal contact;

forming a group of discrete, spaced-apart second bonding elements over the surface of a surrogate substrate prior to the surface of the surrogate substrate being attached to the bonding elements of the back metal contact;

attaching the surrogate substrate on top of the back metal contact using the bonding elements, wherein the second bonding elements over the surface of the surrogate substrate are linearly aligned in parallel rows and are uniformly distributed over the surrogate substrate, and after being attached to the first bonding elements of the back metal contact, the parallel rows of the second bonding elements are aligned in a direction that is offset by approximately 45 degrees with respect to the linear alignment of the parallel rows of the first bonding elements of the back metal contact; and

removing the first substrate to expose the surface of the top subcell.

2. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the first substrate is removed by grinding or lapping.

3. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, further comprising removing the surrogate substrate.

4. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the bonding elements are approximately 50 microns in length.

5. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the bonding elements are spaced apart by approximately 20 microns.

6. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the bonding elements are approximately 2 to 4 microns in thickness.

7. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the bonding elements are substantially square in shape.

8. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the bonding elements are linearly aligned in parallel rows and uniformly distributed over the back metal contact.

9. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the bonding elements include a AuSn, SnAgCu, or PbSn solder.

10. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the attaching is performed by soldering, and further comprising a non-wetting material peripherally surrounding each of the bonding elements for controlling the spread of the liquid solder during the attaching step.

11. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 10, wherein the non-wetting material peripherally surrounding each of the bonding elements is composed of Ni or Nb.

12. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1, wherein the back metal contact has a coefficient of thermal expansion within a range of 0 to 10 ppm per degree Kelvin different from that of the adjacent semiconductor material of the semiconductor solar cell.

13. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the coefficient of thermal expansion of the back metal contact is in the range of 5 to 7 ppm per degree Kelvin.

14. A method of forming a solar cell as defined in claim 1 comprising:

providing a first substrate;

depositing on a first substrate a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell including a top subcell and a bottom subcell;

forming a metal back contact over the bottom subcell;

forming a group of discrete, spaced-apart first bonding elements over the surface of the back metal contact;

attaching a surrogate substrate on top of the back metal contact using the bonding elements; and

removing the first substrate to expose the surface of the top subcell, wherein depositing the sequence of layers comprises;

forming a top first solar subcell on said first substrate having a first band gap;

forming a middle second solar subcell over said first solar subcell having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap;

forming a grading interlayer having a third band gap over said second solar subcell; and

forming a bottom third solar subcell over said grading interlayer 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.