JPS607778A - Photoelectric conversion semiconductor device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the manufacturing yield of the title device by employing the laser scribe method and the laser oxidation method for opening holes for serial connection and dividing into the individual elements in the laminate of a transparent conductive film consisting of ITO and a polycrystalline Si layer having a P-I-N junction formed on the transparent substrate such as of glass or the like. CONSTITUTION:A glass substrate 1 is coated by a transparent conductive film 2 consisting of ITO and etc. followed by irradiation with a laser beam to open a first hole 13 which divides the film into a first element 31, a second element 11 and other electrodes. Next, a non-single crystal Si layer 3 comprising a P-I-N junction is deposited over the whole surface with surrounding those elements. A second hole 18 adjacent to the hole 13 previously opened is opened by the similar method to expose the surface of the substrate 1. After that, an ITO film 45 and the reflection metal 46 are deposited with lamination and an oxidation region 20 which will become the third hole adjacent to the hole 18 is formed by the laser oxidation method after which these elements are connected in series.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a photoelectric conversion element ( The present invention relates to a photoelectric conversion device (hereinafter simply referred to as a device) that is capable of generating high voltage by electrically connecting a plurality of elements (also simply referred to as elements) in series.

This invention is a maskless process that uses a laser scribing method (hereinafter referred to as LS) and a laser oxidation method (hereinafter referred to as LO).

The upper second electrode in such a device is called LO or LO
The purpose is to transform the semiconductor under the electrode material in the part where the separation groove is installed into an insulator by using both and LS in combination, and bury it to electrically isolate the second electrodes of adjacent elements. It is said that

The arrangement, size, and shape of elements in the device of the present invention are determined by design specifications. However, in order to simplify the content of the present invention, in the following detailed description, the first electrode on the lower side (substrate side) of the first element and the second electrode of the second element disposed on the right side thereof will be described. The pattern is based on the case where the electrodes (on the semiconductor, that is, on the side away from the substrate) are electrically connected in series.

In such a pattern, an oxide insulator of a non-single-crystal semiconductor or an oxide insulator of an electrode on the upper surface of the isolation trench electrically isolates the second electrodes of the first element and the second element from each other. The main component is that the insulating material is buried and filled. Furthermore, the present invention provides redundancy for improving manufacturing yield by providing this separation trench over the semiconductor of the first element and setting the depth (hereinafter referred to as "cross depth") to 10 to 150 μm. It is a feature. - This invention fills a separation groove that separates the second electrode material to form a plurality of second electrodes with an oxide insulator, and then uses this insulator to passivate the surface of the non-single crystal semiconductor underneath. It is characterized by providing a highly reliable photoelectric conversion device by providing it as a protection device (protection for preventing deterioration).

In this invention, the semiconductor is a non-single crystal semiconductor, and the electrical conductivity is 6p = 104 (ocm)-', σd = 10
~10-'(Ωc m >-', which is extremely low, compared to the thickness of this semiconductor of 0.3 to 0.7μ,
Applying the fact that sufficient insulation can be achieved by making the crossing depth more than double, the second electrodes of each of the first and second elements are isolated from each other (electrical approximately %it ).

That is, the electrical insulation property is determined by having the IJ of the separation groove 5 times or more (more than 2.5μ or more preferably 20 to 60μ) than the thickness.
The insulation property increases exponentially by 101 times, and the distance between the electrodes increases by 101 times.
This is an application of the characteristic of non-single crystal semiconductors that they can have a resistance of 0.4 Ω/ctn or more.

Conventionally, a mask alignment method has been used in a photoelectric conversion device having an integrated hybrid structure. Therefore, the connecting portion required a width of 5 to 1 mm.

However, on the other hand, the present invention reduces the required area by 1/10 to 1/1/
100. In other words, the connecting part 11 is 350 ~
By setting the coupling portion to 10μ, preferably 200 to 50μ, the area for photovoltaic generation (referred to as effective area or effective area) of a panel of a photoelectric conversion device that requires 5 to 50 stages of connection parts can be reduced from the conventional 75 to 50μ. % to 97-90%, and the effective conversion efficiency is substantially improved by 10-20%.

This invention uses the LS method (L
This is a maskless process in which the third separation groove uses LO or a combination of LO and LS), and in this manufacturing process, the opening grooves formed in the previous process are separated by 50 to 300 mm.
The image is enlarged twice and displayed on a television or the like, and the monitored open groove is addressed in a computer (microcomputer). Furthermore, using this input information as a reference, the position of the open groove to be created in the next process is defined by combining the amount of shift from there with the information stored in the memory.

Then, a laser beam for LS, for example, a YAG laser (focal length: 40 mm, laser beam diameter: 40 μm) with a wavelength of 1.06 μm or a meter laser (wavelength: 0.48 μm, optical diameter: 15 μm) is irradiated onto this defined position. Furthermore, the laser beam is e.g.
It moves at a speed of 1 minute, and creates an open groove or separation groove that is subordinate to the previous process.

The LS and LO of the present invention have the additional advantage of being ultra-high precision systems capable of performing essentially computer-controlled self-aligner methods.

Therefore, the feature is that all causes of price increases and yield decreases in manufacturing, such as mask misalignment, warping, and decreases in manufacturing yield due to alignment accuracy, which are required in conventional mask alignment methods, are eliminated at once. do.

Conventionally, many examples of photoelectric conversion devices, that is, devices in which a plurality of elements are arranged on the same substrate and are integrated, arrayed, or composited, are known.

For example, JP-A-55-4994, JP-A-55-1242
74 In addition, a patent application filed by a dud student in 1984-9009
7/90098/90099 (filed on July 16, 1972) is known.

In the photoelectric conversion device of the present invention, particularly in the thin film type photoelectric conversion device, each of the thin film layers, the conductive layer for electrodes and the semiconductor layer, each has a capacity of 500 to 3000 people and 0.2 to 3000 people, respectively.
It is 0.8μ thin, and by using the LS and LO methods, it is possible to perform automatic mask alignment using a computer control method.

Further, the third isolation groove is not separated and cut by the second @ electrode and LS, but the electrode material or the semiconductor material thereunder is transformed into an oxide and made into an insulator.

For this reason, it has been extremely difficult to control the depth in conventional laser light processing, but in the present invention, this was achieved by converting the third electrical isolation into an oxide instead of creating an open groove. It is.

Therefore, unlike LS, division of the second electrode material can be achieved with high precision and high manufacturing yield.

As a result, the manufacturing cost was reduced to 500 yen/W.
It is now possible to manufacture 100
The objective is to provide an extremely innovative photoelectric conversion device that can be sold for up to 200 yen/W.

A conventional example and the structure of the present invention will be described below according to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a conventionally known photoelectric conversion device using a mask alignment method.

In the drawings, a transparent conductive film (abbreviated as CTF) constituting a first electrode is selectively formed on a transparent substrate (for example, a glass slope) (1) by a first mask alignment step.

Further, a semiconductor layer (3) is similarly selectively formed by a second mask alignment step.

Furthermore, the second electrode (4
) is provided.

In FIG. 1, there is a connecting part (12) between the elements (11) and (31), and the first electrode (37) and the second electrode (
38) is electrically connected to the upper surface of (14). This part should not be short-circuited, including the spread caused by the brushing of the mask, so the second electrode (39) should not be short-circuited by 1 to 5 m.
A wide gap (6) of, for example, 3 mm is required.

Furthermore, the second electrode in the connecting part (12) is
In the region (6), the semiconductor surface (28) is exposed to the outside, and even a part of the first electrode is exposed. Therefore, the first electrode (
39) and the second electrode (37), alignment accuracy on the semiconductor surface (28) is extremely important for manufacturing yield, and as a result, the connection part (12) It has become wider. In addition, the first electrode (
37) and the second electrode (39) tend to leak through the semiconductor surface (28), resulting in a decrease in reliability.

Due to these drawbacks, it is possible to connect the first electrode (37) and the second electrode without adding any extra steps in the manufacturing process.
By covering the surface of the semiconductor between the electrode (39) with a panshylation film and setting the depth to 10 to 150μ, the surface of the semiconductor between (39) and (38) or (39
), <37), and the need for a structure that eliminates interelectrode leakage was particularly strongly emphasized in terms of improving manufacturing yield.

The present invention relates to a photoelectric conversion device that achieves the above object.

In addition, in the conventional method, the gap between the connecting parts is 3 mm, for example, 20 cm x 60 cm with a middle of 18 mm (19
, 2cm x 18cm) element end 1] 4. nun
When fabricated, there will be a 32-stage connection, with a total of 9.6 cm (3 mm x 32) < 185 cm at the connecting part.
d area), and as a result, the self-effective area remained at 75% considering the peripheral area.

The present invention eliminates the complexity of the manufacturing process, reduces the effective area by 10J to 86-97%, e.g. The groove F31 to be separated into a second electrode is filled with an oxide insulator, and the semiconductor under the second electrode is substantially covered with a pansivation of the semiconductor material, resulting in high reliability. It is something that has a certain sexuality. Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an innovative photoelectric conversion device that can increase the manufacturing yield from about 60% to 87%.

The details of the invention are shown below in accordance with the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the manufacturing process of the present invention.

In the drawings, a substrate (1) with an insulating surface, for example a glass plate (for example, a thickness of 0.3 to 2.2 mm, for example 1.1 mm)
, length [in the left-right direction in the drawings] 60 cm, 1] (in the front-rear direction in the drawings) 20 cm).

Furthermore, a transparent conductive film such as I
TO (indium oxide/tin oxide mixture, or a translucent conductive film (500 to 2000) whose main component is tin oxide added with a halogen element is formed by vacuum evaporation method LPCVD method, plasma CVD method, or spray method. I let it happen.

After that, a YAG laser processing machine (manufactured by Nippon Laser) or an argon laser is used to produce an output of 0.3~
Add 2W (focal length 40mm), spot diameter 20-6
0μφ typically 40μφ is irradiated with a laser beam under the control of a microcomputer, and the first groove (13) for the scribe line is formed by scanning, and each inter-element region (31), (11) is formed. A first electrode (2) was prepared. The open groove (13) formed by LS is 1J approximately 40
The first electrode material was completely cut and separated to form each electrode with a length of μ and a depth of 20 cm.

During this LS, it is effective to use Freon thread gas or liquid live) as the atmosphere. Furthermore, it is also effective to dissolve the residue after LSO using the liver or the like to improve the electrical production yield.

Thus the first element (31) and the second element (11)
11] of the area constituting the area is 5 to 30 mm, for example, 1 tm.

As described above, using the LS method, the CTF (2
) was cut and separated to form a first open groove.

After this, plasma CVD or LPGV D is applied to this upper surface.
A non-single crystal semiconductor layer (3) having a PN or PIN junction was formed to a thickness of 0.2 to 0.8μ, typically 0.5μ, by the method.

A typical example is a P-type semiconductor (SixC, , x = 0.8
10OA) - Type 1 amorphous or semi-amorphous silicon semiconductor (about 0.5μ) - N type microcrystal (
a silicon semiconductor with one PIN junction consisting of 5ixC,-en-0,9, or a P-type semiconductor (Si
xC1-J-T type, N type, P type St semiconductor-I type 5fx
Ge, -J conductor - Kundem-type PINPIN having two PIN junctions and one PN junction made of N-type silicon or N-type silicon carbide semiconductor, ...
3).

Such a non-single crystal semiconductor (3) was formed to have a uniform thickness over the entire surface.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2(B), the first open groove (1
A second open groove (18) was formed over the left side (first element side) of 3) by the second LSI process.

In this drawing, the first and second open grooves (13), (1B)
The centers of the two are shifted by 50μ.

The second open groove (18) thus forms a side surface (8) of the first electrode.
, (9) were exposed.

The side surface (9) of this second groove may be on the left side of the side surface (16) of the first electrode of the first element, and has a diameter of 10 to 100 μm.
It was shifted to the first electrode side. In other words, it is characterized in that it is provided over two first electrode positions of the first element.

As a typical example of this, it may enter the inside (9) of the first electrode (37) as shown in FIG. 2(B).

Furthermore, in the present invention, as shown in the conventional example, it is not necessarily necessary to expose the surface of the first electrode (see 14X Fig. 1); All of this crF (37) in the depth direction was removed, and as a result, the side surface (8) was shown in Figure 2 (C).
There is no practical problem even if the connector with the second electrode (38) is brought into close contact with the second electrode (38).

That is, it is extremely important in industrial application of the present invention to be able to provide manufacturing margin for variations in the intensity of the output pulse of the laser beam or the depth of the groove.

In FIG. 2, as shown in FIG. 2(C), a second electrode material $4 (4) and a connector (30) on the back surface are further formed on this top surface, and a third LO or LO and LS are further formed on the top surface. A third separation groove (20) for electrical isolation was formed in combination with the above, and a second electrode was fabricated on the upper blade of the first electrode of each element.

The production of the third separation groove requires a power of 0.2 to 0.6W for one line, which is a very small output compared to the first and second groove production conditions.At the same time, the area to be irradiated with this laser beam is oxygen atmosphere or heating (60-400℃, e.g. 200℃)
LO was performed by blowing with oxygen.

The isolation trench removes or oxidizes the second electrode composition;
Furthermore, it is preferable to oxidize at least the N-type or P-type semiconductor of the silicon semiconductor underneath to form silicon oxide.

Furthermore, when the second electrode is made of a metal such as aluminum, it is also effective to transform it into an oxide insulator.

That is, the present invention does not create an open groove by scanning the third laser beam and remove the electrode material and the semiconductor material thereunder, but replaces the electrode material and semiconductor material in the area irradiated with the laser beam with an oxide insulator. The purpose is to metamorphose it into an insulator and fill it into the isolation trench. Furthermore, by using this insulator as a passivation material for the surface of the semiconductor underneath, it is characterized in that it prevents the semiconductor from being exposed to the atmosphere as if it were mounted on it.

Of course, it is effective to chemically remove this insulator and then fill it with another insulator or coat the entire back surface with it for passivation.

Furthermore, in FIG. 2(C), a conductive oxide (hereinafter referred to as CO) was used as the second electrode (4) in close contact with the semiconductor (2).

As this CO, ITO (a mixture containing indium oxide and tin oxide as main components><45) was formed here. It is also possible to form this CO with indium oxide as the main component. As a result, there is ITO (45) in close contact with the N-type semiconductor on the upper part of the semiconductor, and a reflective metal (46) of silver or aluminum is placed on the upper surface of the ITO (45).
It was formed to a thickness of 3,000 people.

The thinner the back electrode is within the practical range, the more effective it is for creating separation grooves by performing LO. Therefore, the second
It was effective to set the thickness of the electrode to 3000 Å or less.

In one row, we had a two-tier structure with 1,050 JTOs as COs and 1,000 &Ms or Aluminum employees.

This ITO and reflective metal promote reflection of long wavelength light on the back side, effectively photoelectrically convert long wavelength light of 600 to 800 nm, and are also effective in increasing efficiency.

These are electron beam evaporation method, CVD method or PCV method.
In order not to deteriorate the semiconductor layer using the D method, it was formed at a temperature of 300° C. or lower.

In the present invention, a third separation groove is provided across the first element region (31), and the distance between the two electrodes (39) where the open circuit voltage of the first element is generated (<38) is equal to the diameter of the laser beam. 20
~60μ Typically, it is 40μ, and in addition, it is characterized by having a large crossing depth of 10μ or more.

That is, the center of the third open groove (20) is the second open groove (30).
10 to 150 μ, preferably 20 to 100 μ compared to the center of
μ is typically provided at a depth of 50 μ over the first element side.

Therefore, when scanning with a laser beam of 40 μφ, the optimum contact between the end of the Co (45) of the second electrode (39) of the first element and the end of the connector (30) is within ±5 μ of scan fluctuation. Because of this, it can be as long as 60μ.As a result, the leakage during this period is less than one-tenth of that of other parts, and it has the great feature of not being a problem at all when it comes to assembly variations. Ta.

In this way, in this drawing, the second electrode is irradiated with a laser beam from above in the drawing to form a separation groove (20) filled with a buried oxide insulator for electrical isolation. It shows.

This laser beam has a 100 to 30
40) Adjacent first element (31) second element (11)
This prevents the occurrence of crosstalk (leakage current) due to residual conductors or conductive semiconductors in the open grooves between the two.

In particular, this semiconductor (3) is a P-type semiconductor layer, a ■-type semiconductor layer,
If the N-type semiconductor layer has, for example, one PIN junction with the N-type semiconductor layer and the N-type semiconductor layer in close contact with the second electrode has a microcrystalline or polycrystalline structure, the N-type semiconductor has an electrical conductivity of 1 to 20°. (Ωc m )''', it is important to make the N-type semiconductor layer of the present invention a sufficient oxide insulator. It has been extremely effective to bring the oxide insulator of the semiconductor into close contact with the semiconductor and transform it into a phosphorus glass to form a pansivation product for high reliability. It was preferable not to exceed CTF (37) for the first electrode.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 2(C), a plurality of elements (
31>, <11') were connected in series at the connecting part (12).

Thus, for the irradiated light (10) through the substrate (1),
On a substrate like this example (60 cm x 20 cm), each element has a diameter of 18 mm, a connecting part of 113,150 μm,
10mm in the middle of the external extraction electrode part and 4mm in the peripheral part,
It has 32 steps within 580 mm x 192 mm, and the effective area (192 mm x 18 mm x 32 steps, 110
6 cJ, or 92.8%).

As a result, if the segment has a conversion efficiency of 10.3% (1.05 cJ), the panel has an effective conversion efficiency of 6.2% (theoretically 9.5%, but due to the 32 stages of series resistance). efficiency decreased) (8Ml (100mW/CI
IT) was able to provide an output power of 68.6W.

Furthermore, when this panel was subjected to a high temperature storage test at 150°C, it was found that after 1,000 hours, the percentage was below 10%.
At worst, a decrease of only 2% (X=1.3%) was observed in the case of sheets.

This was an astonishing value considering that when a reliability test was conducted under the same conditions using a conventional mask method, as many as 18 panels were rendered inoperable in 10 hours.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing the positional relationship between the open groove and the separation groove in another connecting portion where open grooves are formed during three LSI cycles.

The numbers and steps are the same as in FIG.

FIG. 3(A) shows the first open groove (13) and the first element (3).
1), a second element (11), and a connecting portion (12).

Further, the connector (30) in the second open groove is provided over the first electrode (37) side that constitutes the first element (31).

Further, the third separation groove (20) is formed between the first and second elements (
31), <11), the semiconductor (3
) has a recess (40) in a part of the oxide insulator (5).
2) is installed buried. At the same time, the second electrode (4
) have been scattered and removed,
It has a recess (51), and the other part is mixed with a semiconductor oxide insulator (mainly composed of a mixture of silicon oxide, 7/L/min oxide, and indium oxide). That is, a part is LO and the other part is LS. Such a state could be achieved by blowing room temperature oxygen onto the portion irradiated with laser light (0.6 W). In this way, in the connecting portion (12), the semiconductor is not exposed to the outside because it is padded with an insulator.

If the semiconductor has silicon as its main component, the semiconductor (52) has silicon oxide as its main component. In addition, since the second electrode is an N-type semiconductor with phosphorus added to the upper part of the semiconductor, it is made of ITO (45X100~
3,000 people (1,050 people in a row) and aluminum (300 to 1,500 people, 800 people in a row).

This N-type phosphorus is mixed into the silicon oxide (52) at the same time to form phosphorus glass near the semiconductor, which is effective from the viewpoint of pudge hazing against ions such as sodium.

In FIG. 3(B'), the connectors (30) of the first open groove (13 pieces and the second open groove) are adjacent to each other at the connecting portion, thereby saving unnecessary area there.

Also the third minute! The i1i groove (20) is for LO only. 100% oxygen sprayed onto the laser spot
At a temperature of 400° C., for example, 250° C., it was possible to create a separation groove having a substantially flat upper surface. Others are the same as (A>).

In these FIGS. 3A and 3B, irradiation light is supplied from the substrate side as in FIG. 2.

In FIG. 3(C), the substrate has flexibility, for example, metal foil (48cm) made of stainless steel, aluminum or other metal.
), and an insulating film (49) (49) is formed on its surface.
It is provided with a thickness of 10μ. Elements (30, (11)) are integrated on this composite substrate (1).

The lower electrode (2) is a reflective metal electrode, and its upper surface has a transparent conductive film having tin oxide on the surface. Furthermore, a semiconductor (3
) is provided in the same manner as in FIG. 2, and a transparent conductive film of ITO is formed to a thickness of 400 to 1100, for example 700, in close contact with the N-type semiconductor above it. The first open groove (13) and the second open groove connector (30) are provided adjacently as in FIG. 3(B).The third separation #(20) is made of ITO
Remove only (5], ) L, the semiconductor oxide underneath (
52><Actually, silicon oxide is the main component, and indium oxide or soot oxide is the subcomponent).

Immediately, LS is performed on some parts and LO is performed on the other parts.

The separation grooves were formed using a laser beam of 500 nm, which is a wavelength at which the absorption coefficient of the semiconductor (3) is large, typically 488 nm using an argon laser. Other details are the same as in FIG. 2.

This third separation groove (20) is about 70μ (about 50μ with A).
The first element 31) is shifted to a depth of (B >, < C).

Therefore, the right end portion of the third open groove (20) is provided on the inside (left side) of the connector portion (30).

Thus the first and second elements (31), < 11 )
electrically cutting and separating each of the second electrodes (4);
And the leakage between these electrodes is also 10404cm (lCid
) (meaning the order of 104 people per person).

In the present invention, it has been found that if a 5 cm x 1.0 cm photoelectric conversion device (for a calculator) is made using a 20 cm x 60c+n panel, 240 calculator solar cells can be made at one time.

Furthermore, these panels, for example, 40cm x 40cm or 60cm x 20cm, can be packaged by combining 3 or 4 panels in series within an alumina or carbon fiber resin frame to create a 120cm x 40cm sized NEDO standard high power panel. It is possible to provide

In addition, this NEDO standard panel has a fluorine-based protective film made by Schiffle Nox attached to the opposite side (upper side in the drawing) of the photoelectric conversion device of the present invention to increase mechanical strength against wind pressure, rain, etc. is also valid.

In the present invention, glass is particularly used as the substrate among light-transmitting insulating substrates.

However, it is effective to use a metal foil composite substrate coated with a flexible insulating film as shown in FIG. 3(C) as this substrate.

Further, the details of the present invention will be supplemented by describing examples below.

Example 1 This embodiment is illustrated according to the drawing in FIG.

That is, chemically strengthened glass with a thickness of 1.1 as the transparent substrate (1)
mm, length 60 cm, 1]20cn+ was used.

A silicon nitride film was coated on the top surface to a thickness of 0.1 μm to form a blocking layer.

Furthermore, on top of that, add CTF to the texture structure of 17050
0 (average thickness) and this 110 S to coat the surface
A two-layer film of approximately 300 nO* layers was fabricated by electron beam evaporation.

Thereafter, a first groove was formed in the groove 1 using a YAG laser having a diameter of 40 μm and an output of 11 μm, controlled by a microcomputer at a scanning speed of 1 m/min.

The element regions (31) and (11) were set to 1.8 mm1iJ.

Thereafter, a non-single crystal semiconductor having one PIN junction as shown in FIG. 2 was manufactured by a known PCVD method, photo CVD method or photo plasma CVD method. Its total thickness was approximately 0.5μ.

A second open groove (18) was produced as shown in FIG. 2(B) by LS with a chemical reaction in a CF311 atmosphere at an output of IW at a speed of 40 μm.

Further, this whole was used as a conductor for the second electrode, and ITO was made by electron beam evaporation to an average thickness of 1050 mm, and AI was made on the top surface by electron beam evaporation to an average thickness of 800 mm. 45) The connector (30) was configured.

Furthermore, the third separation + 1 yen! (20) is formed in an oxygen atmosphere by LO partially accompanied by LS from the second open groove (18) to a depth of 50μ shifted toward the first element (31) side. (C) was obtained.

Laser light has an output of 0. '7W and activated aluminum as lower grade aluminum oxide. Of course, this electroded semiconductor was oxidized and transformed into a silicon oxide insulator, and an isolation trench was created using the buried insulator.

In this way, FIG. 2(C) was produced.

Thereafter, a bancivation film (21) was formed using a silicon nitride film using the PCVD method at a temperature of 200° C. in 1,000 people.

Then 18mmrl on a 20cm x 60cm panel
We were able to create 32 stages of J elements.

The effective efficiency of the panel is AMI (100mW/
cnt) 6.2% and an output of 68.6W could be obtained.

Effective area is 1102 cI! l, and 92 of the entire panel
．． 8% could be used effectively.

Example 2 As a substrate glass, thickness 0.5 mm and size 20 cm
60 cm was used. Furthermore, a plurality of photoelectric conversion devices for calculators each measuring 5 cm x 1.0 cm were fabricated on the same substrate. Here, the element shape was a 5-stage continuous array of 9 mm x 9 mm. The connecting portion had a thickness of 100μ and was provided as the structure shown in FIG. 3(B).

As a result, he was able to make 240 calculator devices at once.

Tested at 2001'x under fluorescent light for an effective conversion efficiency of 4.5%.

As a result, a final manufacturing yield of 83% could be obtained.

This can only be achieved by 40-50% using conventional methods,
Moreover, considering that the required area of the connecting portion was large and the effective conversion efficiency could only be obtained up to 3.2%, it was extremely effective.

The rest is the same as in Example 1.

Example 3 This example is shown in FIG. 3(C), and the substrate was made of a metal (duralumin) whose main component was aluminum and had a thickness of 150 μm.

Furthermore, as a blocking layer, aluminum oxide is made by anodizing aluminum to a thickness of 5 μm (by alumite treatment, etc.) to prevent this metal foil from being damaged by LS. did.

The rest is the same as in Example 1.

In this method, the price of the board was 160 yen/round table electric train in Example 2, but this was reduced to 2 yen/
It was even possible to use it as an element for trains.

In addition, each calculator element can be separated from the sheet by cutting or using scissors, so it is extremely easy to process and is inexpensive.

Furthermore, when cutting from this sea 1~, 10~15w
Automatic cutting and folding has become possible using LS using strong pulsed light.

In this example, contrary to FIG. 2(C), the light is incident from the upper side, so the upper protective transparent organic resin (
By superimposing 22) on the second electrode of ITO, which is a transparent conductive film, the mechanical strength of the photoelectric conversion device can be increased, it has flexibility, and mass production is possible at extremely low cost. became.

In this example, a yield of 81% could be obtained from the 240 units produced, with an effective conversion efficiency of 4.5% as the lower limit.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical view of a conventional photoelectric conversion device. FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the manufacturing process of the photoelectric conversion device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged vertical sectional view of another photoelectric conversion device of the present invention. Patent applicant: Semiconductor Energy Research Institute, Inc. Representative: Shun Yamazaki Hei 31reno! 1st ■ ” -3 to q-Ichimei 51fl

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first electrode on an insulating surface of a substrate, a non-single-crystal semiconductor that is in close contact with the electrode and generates a photovoltaic force upon irradiation with light, and In a photoelectric conversion device in which a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements each having a second electrode are electrically connected in series and arranged on the substrate, the first electrode is connected to a second photoelectric conversion element adjacent to the first photoelectric conversion element. The separation groove that is provided to be electrically connected to the second electrode of the element and that electrically separates the second electrode of the first and second photoelectric conversion elements includes an oxidized layer of the non-single crystal semiconductor. 1. A photoelectric conversion semiconductor device, characterized in that it is filled with a material insulator or an oxide insulator of the second electrode as a main component. 2. In claim 1, the number of separation grooves is 10 to 1.
It is characterized by being provided at a depth of 50 μm, extending over the side of the first photoelectric conversion element and electrically separating the P- or N-type semiconductor layer provided in close proximity to the second electrode. photoelectric conversion semiconductor device. 3. The photoelectric conversion semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the oxide filled in the isolation trench is mainly composed of an insulator of silicon, aluminum, indium, or a mixture thereof.