JPH1084123A - Solar cell module and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a solar cell module which can simplify its manufacturing steps at low cost, by bonding a protective film on a rear-side electrode with the use of resist used in an etching process as adhesive. SOLUTION: A surface electrode 2, a semiconductor layer 3 and a rear-side electrode 4 are sequentially formed on a glass substrate 1 to form a thin-film solar cell S. The rear-side electrode 4 is etched with the use of thermoplastic or thermosetting resist 5. The resist 5 is heated by a heating means to provide adhesive property thereto, whereby a protective film 6 is bonded onto the rear- side electrode 4 using the resist 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a solar cell module in which a thin film having a PN junction is formed on a substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional method of manufacturing a thin-film solar cell module, first, as shown in FIG. 10, a surface, which is an electrode layer on the front side of a thin-film solar cell S, is placed on a translucent glass substrate 1 or a polymer substrate. The electrode 2 is formed. Then, in order to connect a plurality of thin film solar cells S in series, the surface electrode 2 is divided into a plurality of pieces by laser processing or the like (state A).

Next, a semiconductor layer 3 of a PN junction, which is a photoelectric conversion element that generates an electromotive force by irradiation of light from the sun, a fluorescent lamp, or the like, is formed on the surface electrode 2. The semiconductor layer 3 is provided with an opening 3a for connecting a back electrode 4 and a front electrode 2 to be formed next (state B).

Thereafter, a back electrode 4 which is an electrode layer on the back side of the thin film solar cell S is formed on the semiconductor layer 3 (state C).
Then, the back electrode 4 is divided by an etching process so as to correspond to the plurality of separated front electrodes 2. In this etching process, first, a resist 5 serving as a mask at the time of etching is applied to the upper surface of the back electrode 4 by screen printing or the like, and a pattern corresponding to the division is formed. Then, unnecessary portions of the back electrode 4 are removed by etching (D state). When this etching process is completed, the thin film solar cell S is first formed by removing the resist 5 (E state). The resist 5 used at the time of the etching treatment is M-8 manufactured by Taiyo Ink Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
5K and MR-500B manufactured by Asahi Chemical Laboratory Co., Ltd. are used.

The back electrode 4 of the thin film solar cell S
A protective film 6, which is a protective member for protecting this from a mechanical shock or the like, is bonded thereon to manufacture a thin-film solar cell module. At this time, generally, the adhesive film 7 is placed on the back electrode 4, and the protective film 6 is further placed thereon, and the adhesive film 7 is placed between the thin film solar cell S and the protective film 6. They are sandwiched and joined by a laminator (a device for performing vacuum defoaming and hot pressing) (F state).

[0006]

However, in the above manufacturing method, the resist 5 applied during the etching process of the back electrode 4 must be once peeled and removed. In addition, the adhesive film 7 is arranged and fixed at an accurate position on the back electrode 4 of the thin-film solar cell S, and the protective film 6 is arranged and fixed thereon at an accurate position. Therefore, it is necessary to perform batch processing of several sheets, and the number of manufacturing steps is increased and complicated.

As a method of simplifying the manufacturing process, a method of bonding a protective film 6 on the back electrode 4 of the thin-film solar cell S using a pressure roller has been proposed. In addition, it is necessary to accurately feed the three types of adhesive films 7 into the pressure roller, and the mechanism becomes complicated, which is not practical.

Further, since the thick adhesive film 7 is used, the characteristics of the thin film solar cell S due to its thinness cannot be fully utilized.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a solar cell module and a method for manufacturing the same, which can simplify the manufacturing process and reduce the cost.

[0010]

The object of the present invention is to provide a solar cell module in which an electrode layer of a solar cell is etched and a protective member for protecting the electrode layer is joined to the electrode layer. Sometimes, a resist having adhesiveness is used, and the electrode layer and the protective member are joined by this resist. Therefore, the conventional process of removing the resist and the process of arranging and fixing the adhesive film become unnecessary, and the manufacturing process can be simplified.
Furthermore, an adhesive film becomes unnecessary, and cost can be reduced.

If the resist has thermoplasticity or thermosetting properties, adhesiveness can be obtained by heating, and the adhesive can be used as an adhesive to bond the electrode layer and the protective member. In addition, even if the resist has pressure-sensitive adhesive properties, adhesiveness can be obtained by applying pressure,
Using this as an adhesive, the electrode layer and the protective member can be joined. Therefore, the solar cell module can be manufactured by a simple process of joining the electrode layer and the protective member with the resist.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

(First Embodiment) The thin-film solar cell module of the present invention is basically the same as the conventional one shown in FIG. Protective film 6 for protecting this
Are bonded, but a thermoplastic or thermosetting resist 5 having adhesiveness during the etching process is used,
Instead of bonding the back electrode 4 and the protective film 6 with the adhesive film 7, the back electrode 4 and the protective film 6 are bonded together by the resist 5.

Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing the thin-film solar cell module of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. The same members as those of the conventional thin-film solar cell module shown in FIG.

First, a surface electrode 2 is formed of SnO ₂ on a light-transmitting insulating substrate such as a glass substrate 1 by a sputtering method or the like (ST1), and the surface electrode 2 is cut in parallel by laser processing or the like into a plurality of pieces. Separate and divide (ST2, state A). The translucent insulating substrate is made of PET, PC, PE
A substrate made of a translucent polymer material such as S or fluororesin or a ceramic material such as alumina may be used. The surface electrode 2 may be formed of ITO, ZnO, or a composite film thereof.

Next, an amorphous silicon semiconductor layer 3 is formed by a deposition reaction of decomposition products such as silane, germane, methane, diborane, phosphine, and hydrogen by a plasma CVD method.
Is formed (ST3). This semiconductor layer 3 is composed of a p layer, i
This is a photoelectric conversion element that is formed by stacking layers and n layers and converts incident light into electric energy. Note that the semiconductor layer 3 may be formed by an evaporation method, a sputtering method, or the like.

After that, the semiconductor layer 3 is cut in parallel with the separation part 2a of the surface electrode 2 by a processing method such as laser processing.
An opening 3a for electrically connecting the front surface electrode 2 and the back surface electrode 4 to be formed next is provided (ST4, state B).

Next, Z is formed on the semiconductor layer 3 as a back electrode 4.
An nO / Ag laminated film is formed by a sputtering method (ST5, state C). The back electrode 4 is made of ZnO, ITO,
Transparent conductive film such as SnO ₂ , Ag, Al, Ni, Ti, C
And the like and a composite film thereof.

Then, in order to form the back electrode 4 into a predetermined shape divided corresponding to the front electrode 2, an etching process is performed. The resist 5 for masking only the non-etched portion of the back electrode 4 at the time of this etching treatment is a heat-reactive adhesive having a thermosetting property, for example, Three Bond Chemical Co., Ltd. which is a heat-reactive adhesive mainly composed of an epoxy resin. ) Three Bond 1570 is used. Then, the resist 5 is applied on the upper surface of the back electrode 4 by screen printing and dried to form an etching mask (ST6). At this time, when ThreeBond 1570 is used for the resist 5, the resist 5 is dried at a temperature of 100 to 160 ° C. for 1 to 2 minutes. In addition, the resist 5 may have thermoplasticity and may have adhesiveness by heating. Further, the formation of the etching mask using the resist 5 may be performed by applying a resist 5 using a spin coater or a roll coater other than screen printing, and then processing the resist 5 into a predetermined shape by a photolithography process or laser processing.

After the back electrode 4 is masked, it is etched with a nitric acid solution or the like (ST).
7). Thus, first, the thin-film solar cell S is formed (D
Status). Note that an acid such as hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid, a mixed solution of ferric chloride or cupric chloride, a mixed solution of ammonia and hydrogen peroxide water, or the like may be used as the etching solution. The steps up to here are the same as those in the related art.

When the thin-film solar cell S is formed, a protective film 6 as a protective member for protecting the back electrode 4 is placed on the upper surface of the back electrode 4 without peeling the resist 5 (see FIG. 1). ST8) It is transported as a work X to the heating means and joined. As the protective film 6, a film made of a polymer film such as a fluororesin, PET and / or polyimide, or a composite film such as a polymer film and a thin metal film such as Al is used. The protective film 6 is formed of a resist 5 in a process described later.
Any material may be used as long as it does not deform due to the heat applied to the film, and may be a thick material instead of a film-like material.

As shown in FIG. 3, the heating means includes a heater 10 for heating the resist 5, a pressing roller 11 for pressing the work X from both sides, and a transfer conveyor 12 for transferring the work X. And a cover 13.

The heater 10 includes an infrared lamp heater,
It is a halogen lamp heater or a sheath heater. As the pressing roller 11, two sets of upper pressing roller 11a and lower pressing roller 11b arranged vertically are arranged in front and rear in the conveying direction of the work X, respectively, are rotatably supported, and are driven by driving means such as a motor. It is driven to rotate. The upper and lower pressure rollers 11a and 11b are formed of a resin or the like having heat resistance and elasticity. The length of the upper and lower pressure rollers 11a and 11b in the axial direction is equal to or larger than the width of the work X. .

Then, the work X is applied to the upper and lower pressure rollers 11.
a, 11b, both pressure rollers 11a, 1
Pressure is applied to the work X from above and below by the elasticity of 1b. Here, when the shaft of the pressure roller 11 is configured to be urged in the work X direction by a spring or the like, the pressure roller 11 may not have elasticity.

The transport conveyor 12 comprises a roller conveyor made of metal or resin, and is driven to rotate by driving means such as a motor. Alternatively, a belt conveyor may be used, and the work X automatically placed on the conveyor 12 may be used.
To the pressure roller 11.

As shown in FIG. 4, the heating means may be provided with a pressure table 11c instead of the lower pressure roller 11b. The upper surface of the press table 11c is
If the surface treatment is performed so as to reduce the frictional resistance of the workpiece X, the transfer of the work X becomes smooth and the efficiency is improved. Further, FIG.
As shown in (1), the upper pressure roller 11a may be a heat roller having a built-in heater 14, and the heater 10 may be omitted. In addition, the work X is radiated in front of the pressure roller 11.
May be provided.

In order to load the work X into the heating means having the above structure, the work X is placed on the conveyor 12
The work X is conveyed to the pressure roller 11, and the work X is automatically conveyed to the downstream side by the rotation of the pressure roller 11 while being sandwiched between the upper and lower pressure rollers 11a and 11b. At this time, the resist 5 is heated by the heater 10 and becomes flexible (ST9). The back electrode 4 and the protective film 6 are pressed from both sides via the resist 5 to be pressed. Then, when the resist 5 cools, it solidifies again, and the protective film 6 is bonded to the thin-film solar cell S (ST10, G state). In FIG. 1, Y is a space formed by the etching process. If the material of the resist 5 needs to be cured, it needs to be cured thereafter. For example, Three Bond 1570 requires three hours of cure. Thus, a thin-film solar cell module is formed.

As described above, by using the resist 5 having adhesiveness at the time of the etching process and bonding the protective film 6 with the resist 5, the step of removing the resist 5 and the arrangement of the adhesive film 7 as in the related art are performed. No fixing step is required. Therefore, the manufacturing process can be simplified. Further, since the adhesive film 7 becomes unnecessary, the cost can be reduced.

By making the resist 5 thermoplastic or thermosetting, adhesiveness can be obtained only by heating the resist 5. Therefore, the solar cell module can be manufactured by a simple manufacturing method in which the back electrode 4 is etched using the resist 5, the resist 5 is heated by a heating unit, and the protective film 6 is joined by the resist 5.

Further, only the thin film solar cell S and the protective film 6 need to be supplied to the heating means as the work X, and the number of types is reduced by the amount of the adhesive film as compared with the conventional case, the mechanism is simplified, and continuous processing is facilitated. become.

(Second Embodiment) In the first embodiment,
Although a thermoplastic or thermosetting heat-reactive adhesive is used for the resist 5, in this embodiment, the back electrode 4 is etched using the pressure-sensitive adhesive 5, and the resist 5 is pressed by pressing means. To resist 5
Protective film 6 is joined.

Hereinafter, the manufacturing process of the thin-film solar cell module of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, as in the first embodiment, a surface electrode 2 is formed on a glass substrate 1 (ST10), cut in parallel by laser processing and divided into a plurality of pieces (ST1).
1). Then, the semiconductor layer 3 is formed on the surface electrode 2 (ST12), and an opening 3a is provided by laser processing (ST13).

Next, the back electrode 4 is formed on the semiconductor layer 3 (ST14). Then, in order to form the back electrode 4 into a predetermined shape divided corresponding to the front electrode 2, an etching process is performed. A resist 5 for masking only the portion of the back electrode 4 that is not etched during this etching process.
Uses a pressure-sensitive adhesive, for example, ThreeBond 1546, 1548, 1549 manufactured by ThreeBond Kako Co., Ltd.
Then, the resist 5 is applied by screen printing and dried to form an etching mask (ST15).

At this time, the resist 5 having the pressure-sensitive adhesive property is dried at 100 ° C. for 2 minutes. The resist 5 may be any as long as it can be formed into a film by coating and drying and has adhesiveness under pressure. Further, after the resist 5 is applied by a spin coater or a roll coater, the resist 5 may be processed into a predetermined shape by a photolithography process or laser processing.

After the back electrode 4 is masked, it is etched with a nitric acid solution or the like as in the first embodiment (ST16). Thus, first, the thin-film solar cell S is formed.

When the thin-film solar cell S is formed, a protective film 6 as a protective member for protecting the back electrode 4 is placed on the upper surface of the back electrode 4 (ST17). It is conveyed to the pressing means and joined. As the protective film 6, a film made of a polymer film such as a fluororesin, PET and / or polyimide, or a composite film of the polymer film and a thin metal film such as Al is used.

As shown in FIG. 7, the pressurizing means is obtained by removing the heater 10 from the heating means, and includes a pressurizing roller 11 for pressurizing the work X from both sides, and a conveying conveyor 12 for conveying the work X. , And a cover 13. Also,
As shown in FIG. 8, a pressure table 11c may be used instead of the lower pressure roller 11b. Further, the upper and lower pressure rollers 1
When the respective shafts of 1a and 11b are configured to be biased in a direction approaching each other by a spring or the like, the pressing roller 11 may not have elasticity. Further, if an adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting the pressure according to the pressure-sensitive adhesiveness of the material used for the resist 5 is provided, unnecessary pressure is not applied and the efficiency is improved.

To load the work X into the pressurizing means having the above configuration, the work X is placed on the conveyor 12
The work X is conveyed to the pressure roller 11, and when the work X is sandwiched between the upper and lower pressure rollers 11a and 11b, the work X is automatically conveyed to the downstream side by the rotation of the pressure roller 11.
At this time, the resist 5 is pressed by the pressing roller 11 via the thin-film solar cell S and the protective film 6 to obtain adhesiveness. Then, when the work X comes off from the pressing means, the pressure from the pressing roller 11 disappears, and the protective film 6 is bonded to the thin-film solar cell S.

As described above, the present embodiment can provide the same effects as those of the first embodiment. Also, resist 5
Has pressure-sensitive adhesiveness, the curing time of the resist 5 is not required as in the first embodiment, and the bonding between the back electrode 4 and the protective film 6 can be performed in a short time. Therefore, the manufacturing time can be reduced, and the manufacturing cost can be further reduced.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it goes without saying that many modifications and changes can be made to the above-described embodiment within the scope of the present invention. For example, in this embodiment, a method of manufacturing an amorphous silicon thin film solar cell module has been described. However, a thin film is formed on a substrate made of glass, a polymer material, or the like in a thin film polycrystalline silicon solar cell or a compound solar cell such as CuInSe _2. If it is, a thin film solar cell module can be similarly manufactured by the method of the present invention.

A back electrode 21 is formed on a substrate 20 as shown in FIG. 9, a semiconductor layer 22 is formed thereon, and a surface electrode 23 is further formed thereon. The present invention can also be applied to a thin-film solar cell module to which a light-transmitting protective film 6 is bonded to protect the solar cell module.

[0042]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, in the solar cell module in which the electrode layer of the solar cell is etched and a protective member for protecting the electrode layer is joined to the electrode layer. Since a resist having adhesiveness is used during the processing, and the electrode layer and the protective member are joined by this resist, the protective member can be joined using the resist used in the etching process as it is, thereby simplifying manufacturing. A solar cell module can be manufactured in the process. Therefore, the step of removing the resist and the step of arranging and fixing the adhesive film become unnecessary, and the manufacturing process can be simplified. Furthermore, an adhesive film becomes unnecessary, and cost can be reduced.

If the resist has thermoplasticity or thermosetting properties, the adhesiveness can be obtained by heating, and the protective member can be joined by using the adhesive as an adhesive. Even if the resist has pressure-sensitive adhesiveness, the adhesiveness can be obtained by pressing, and the protective member can be joined using the adhesive as an adhesive.

Further, since it is not necessary to use a thick adhesive film and a thin resist is laminated, a thin solar cell module can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a thin-film solar cell module according to a first embodiment of the present invention for each manufacturing process.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the same manufacturing process.

FIG. 3 is a simplified configuration diagram of a heating unit.

FIG. 4 is a simplified configuration diagram of another heating means.

FIG. 5 is a simplified configuration diagram of another heating means.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a manufacturing process of the thin-film solar cell module according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a simplified configuration diagram of a pressing unit.

FIG. 8 is a simplified configuration diagram of another pressing means.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of another thin-film solar cell module for each manufacturing process.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view for each manufacturing process of a conventional solar cell module.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Glass substrate 2 Front electrode 3 Semiconductor layer 4 Back electrode 5 Resist 6 Protective film 10 Heater 11 Pressure roller 12 Conveyor 13 Cover S Thin-film solar cell X Work

Claims (5)

[Claims] In a solar cell module in which an electrode layer of a solar cell is etched and a protective member for protecting the electrode layer is bonded to the electrode layer, a resist having adhesiveness is used during the etching. A solar cell module, wherein the electrode layer and the protective member are joined by a resist. 2. The solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein the resist has a thermoplastic property or a thermosetting property. 3. The solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein the resist has a pressure-sensitive adhesive property. 4. An etching process for the electrode layer using a thermoplastic or thermosetting resist, heating the resist by heating means, and joining the electrode layer and the protective member with the resist. The method for manufacturing a solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the electrode layer is etched using a resist having a pressure-sensitive adhesive property, the resist is pressed by a pressing unit, and the electrode layer and the protective member are joined by the resist. The method for manufacturing a solar cell module according to claim 1.