Method of fabricating bifacial tandem solar cells

• US 8,852,994 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2010
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Masimo Semiconductor Inc. (Masimo Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Masimo Semiconductor Inc. (Masimo Corporation)
• Inventors: Wojtczuk, Steven J., Chiu, Philip T., Zhang, Xuebing, Gagnon, Edward, Timmons, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Landau, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anya, Igwe U
• Application Number:
  US12/800,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20110287578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,597 Days
• Field of Search: 438/94, 257/E21.125
• US Class Current: 438/94
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/0684 double emitter cells, e.g. bifacial solar cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/0687 Multiple junction or tandem solar cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/0693 the devices including, apart from doping material or other impurities, only AIIIBV compounds, e.g. GaAs or InP solar cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/1844 comprising ternary or quaternary compounds, e.g. Ga Al As, In Ga As P
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/544 Solar cells from Group III-V materials
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/547 Monocrystalline silicon PV cells

Abstract

A method of fabricating on a semiconductor substrate bifacial tandem solar cells with semiconductor subcells having a lower bandgap than the substrate bandgap on one side of the substrate and with subcells having a higher bandgap than the substrate on the other including, first, growing a lower bandgap subcell on one substrate side that uses only the same periodic table group V material in the dislocation-reducing grading layers and bottom subcells as is present in the substrate and after the initial growth is complete and then flipping the substrate and growing the higher bandgap subcells on the opposite substrate side which can be of different group V material.

Claims

1. A method of fabricating on a semiconductor substrate bifacial tandem solar cells with subcells, the method comprising:

growing a lower bandgap subcell on one side of a substrate using non-phosphorous materials, the lower bandgap subcell comprising a bottom subcell and grading layers, the bottom subcell and the grading layers comprising a first periodic table group V material;

after said growing the lower bandgap subcell, flipping the substrate; and

after said flipping the substrate, growing higher bandgap subcells on an opposite side of the substrate, the higher bandgap subcells comprising a second periodic table group V material,

wherein the lower bandgap subcell has a lower bandgap than a substrate bandgap and the higher bandgap subcells have a higher bandgap than the substrate bandgap.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said growing the lower bandgap subcell comprises growing the lower bandgap subcell on the one side of the substrate using at least an arsine atmosphere.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises a doped N-type GaAs substrate having a doping impurity concentration of less than 5×

10¹⁷ cm<sup>−

3</sup>.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the grading layers comprise In_x(Al_yGa_1-y)_1-xAs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the bottom subcell comprises In_xGa_1-xAs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the higher bandgap subcells comprise a first higher bandgap subcell, the first higher bandgap subcell comprising a N-on-P cell, the N-on-P cell comprising In_xGa_1-xAs or GaAs.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the higher bandgap subcells further comprise a second higher bandgap subcell, the second higher bandgap subcell comprising In_xGa_1-xP or In_x(Al_yGa_1-y)_1-xP.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the bottom subcell comprises a contact cap, and further comprising etching away a portion of the contact cap to remove an area damaged during said growing the higher bandgap subcells.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first periodic table group V material comprises a periodic table group V material of the substrate.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first periodic table group V material comprises the same periodic table group V material as the second periodic table group V material.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first periodic table group V material comprises a different periodic table group V material than the second periodic table group V material.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower bandgap subcell is not lattice-matched to the substrate, and the higher bandgap subcells are lattice-matched to the substrate.

13. A method of fabricating on a semiconductor substrate bifacial tandem solar cells with subcells, the method comprising:

growing higher bandgap subcells on one side of a substrate, the higher bandgap subcells comprising at least one periodic table group V material;

after said growing the higher bandgap subcells, flipping the substrate; and

after said flipping the substrate, growing a lower bandgap subcell on an opposite side of the substrate using non-phosphorous materials, the lower bandgap subcell comprising a bottom subcell and grading layers, the bottom subcell and the grading layers comprising at least one periodic table group V material,

wherein the lower bandgap subcell has a lower bandgap than a substrate bandgap and the higher bandgap subcells have a higher bandgap than the substrate bandgap.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said growing the lower bandgap subcell comprises growing the lower bandgap subcell on the opposite side of the substrate using at least an arsine atmosphere.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the substrate comprises a doped N-type GaAs substrate having a doping impurity concentration of less than 5×

10¹⁷ cm<sup>−

3</sup>.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the grading layers comprise In_x(Al_yGa_1-y)_1-xAs.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the bottom subcell comprises In_xGa_1-xAs.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the higher bandgap subcells comprise a first higher bandgap subcell, the first higher bandgap subcell comprising a N-on-P cell, the N-on-P cell comprising In_xGa_1-xAs or GaAs.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the higher bandgap subcells further comprise a second higher bandgap subcell, the second higher bandgap subcell comprising In_xGa_1-xP or In_x(Al_yGa_1-y)_1-xP.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the lower bandgap subcell is not lattice-matched to the substrate, and the higher bandgap subcells are lattice-matched to the substrate.