US20190140115A1 - High absorption photovoltaic material and methods of making the same - Google Patents

High absorption photovoltaic material and methods of making the same Download PDF

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Publication number
US20190140115A1
US20190140115A1 US16/099,081 US201716099081A US2019140115A1 US 20190140115 A1 US20190140115 A1 US 20190140115A1 US 201716099081 A US201716099081 A US 201716099081A US 2019140115 A1 US2019140115 A1 US 2019140115A1
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Prior art keywords
photovoltaic material
photonic crystal
photovoltaic
crystal structures
component
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US16/099,081
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English (en)
Inventor
Ping Kuang
Shawn Yu LIN
Anthony Post
Sajeev Oommen JOHN
Sergey Leonidovich EYDERMAN
Mei-Li Hsieh
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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Priority to US16/099,081 priority Critical patent/US20190140115A1/en
Publication of US20190140115A1 publication Critical patent/US20190140115A1/en
Assigned to U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY reassignment U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY CONFIRMATORY LICENSE (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L31/00—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof
    • H01L31/02—Details
    • H01L31/0236—Special surface textures
    • H01L31/02363—Special surface textures of the semiconductor body itself, e.g. textured active layers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L31/00—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof
    • H01L31/02—Details
    • H01L31/0216—Coatings
    • H01L31/02161—Coatings for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier
    • H01L31/02167—Coatings for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier for solar cells
    • H01L31/02168—Coatings for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier for solar cells the coatings being antireflective or having enhancing optical properties for the solar cells
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L31/00—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof
    • H01L31/18—Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment of these devices or of parts thereof
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
    • Y02E10/00—Energy generation through renewable energy sources
    • Y02E10/50—Photovoltaic [PV] energy
    • Y02E10/52—PV systems with concentrators

Definitions

  • Some embodiments of the disclosed subject matter are directed to a photovoltaic material having a surface modified with a layer of repeating photonic crystal structures.
  • the photonic crystal structures are approximately inverse conically shaped and have simple cubic geometry.
  • the photonic crystal structures have a curved sidewall that has an approximately Gaussian shape and a gradient refractive index profile.
  • an anti-reflective coating is disposed over the photonic crystal structure layer.
  • the photonic crystal structures exhibit a light trapping effect known as parallel-to-interface refraction.
  • the photonic crystal structures are made using a combination photolithography and reactive-ion etching process.
  • a 2-D photoresist hole array is deposited on the surface of the photovoltaic material.
  • the photovoltaic material surface left exposed is then subjected to low power reactive-ion etching with a gas mixture having a high concentration of an etchant component to a passivation component.
  • the result is a more isotropic etch while the sidewalls remain relatively smooth to prevent undesired light reflection.
  • FIG. 1 is a front isometric scanning electron microscope image of a high absorption photovoltaic material according to some embodiments of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 1B is an enlarged front isometric scanning electron microscope image of a photonic crystal structure on the high absorption photovoltaic material according to some embodiments of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 1C is a schematic representation of a refractive index profile of the high absorption photovoltaic material according to some embodiments of the present disclosure
  • FIG. 2 is a series of charts of light absorption data exhibiting the improved absorbance properties of the high absorption photovoltaic material according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
  • FIG. 3 is a chart of a method of making a high absorption photovoltaic material according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
  • photovoltaic material 100 having a photovoltaic material surface 102 and an opposite second surface 104 .
  • photovoltaic material 100 is composed of inorganic materials such as crystalline silicon, multi-crystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, GaAs, CIGS, CdTe, perovskite, etc., organic photovoltaic materials, other suitable photovoltaic materials, or a combination thereof.
  • photovoltaic material 100 has a thickness 106 less than about 100 ⁇ m, e.g., about 50 ⁇ m, 20 ⁇ m, 10 ⁇ m, or less.
  • photovoltaic material 100 is a thin layer photovoltaic material, e.g., a silicon-on-insulator wafer or other thin film photovoltaic material, such as fabricated by chemical vapor deposition or physical vapor deposition technique processes.
  • Photovoltaic material 100 as described above includes a photonic crystal structure layer 108 that defines photonic material surface 102 .
  • photovoltaic material 100 includes an anti-reflective coating 110 on photonic crystal structure layer 108 .
  • anti-reflective coating 110 is SiO 2 , ZnO, AlO 3 , Si 3 N 4 , or a combination thereof.
  • anti-reflective coating 110 is only a single layer.
  • anti-reflective coating 110 has a thickness less than about 1 ⁇ m. In some embodiments, anti-reflective coating 110 has a thickness of about 0.03 ⁇ m to about 0.12 ⁇ m. In some embodiments, anti-reflective coating 110 has a thickness less than about 0.1 ⁇ m.
  • Photonic crystal structure layer 108 includes photonic crystal structures 112 having an approximately inverse conical shape.
  • the terms “approximately” and “about” are used to indicate that insubstantial changes to the limitation are also envisioned.
  • the term “approximately inverse conical shape” is used to convey that the shape of photonic crystal structures 112 resembles a generally conical shape.
  • photonic crystal structures 112 have a substantially simple cubic symmetry.
  • photonic crystal structures 112 repeat across substantially all of photovoltaic material surface 102 .
  • photonic crystal structures 112 are present on only a portion of photovoltaic material surface 102 .
  • photonic crystal structures 112 have a width 114 and a depth 116 where the relative sizes of the width and depth are defined according to a value of Equation 1:
  • (a) is width 114 and (d) is depth 116 .
  • the value of (d)/(a/2) for photonic crystal structures 112 is greater than 2. In the example portrayed in FIG. 1 , (d)/(a/2) is about 2.3.
  • Photonic crystal structures 112 thus typically, but not always, have a relatively large vertical depth, for example compared to a typical KOH-etched inverted pyramid structure profile having a (d)/(a/2) value of only 1.3, allowing for better light catching by the photonic crystal structures.
  • photonic crystal structures 112 have a width 114 of about 1.2 m.
  • photonic crystal structures 112 have a depth 116 of about 1 ⁇ m to about 1.5 ⁇ m.
  • photonic crystal structures 112 have a depth 116 of about 1.4 ⁇ m.
  • Photonic crystal structures 112 include a sidewall 118 .
  • photonic crystal structures 112 include multiple sidewalls 118 . Because of the increased vertical depth of photonic crystal structures 112 , sidewall 118 is typically relatively steep, which allows for better light catching.
  • photonic crystal structures 112 have a sidewall angle 120 greater than about 55 degrees. In some embodiments, photonic crystal structures 112 have a sidewall angle 120 greater than about 70 degrees.
  • sidewall 118 is approximately Gaussian-shaped.
  • the expression for the Gaussian shape is shown in Equation 2 below.
  • the term “approximately Gaussian-shaped” is used to convey that sidewall 118 do not need to rigorously adhere to the definition portrayed in Equation 2. Rather, sidewall 118 generally follows Equation 2 and if they do deviate, they do so insubstantially enough so as not to remove the advantageous refractive properties of sidewall 118 . Equation 2 is defined as:
  • the approximately Gaussian-shaped sidewall 118 is curved towards a central axis A. Sidewall 118 also increases in a thickness 122 as depth 116 of photonic crystal structures 112 increases. In some embodiments, thickness 122 of sidewall 118 increases continuously and smoothly.
  • Photovoltaic material 100 having photonic crystal structures 112 and specifically the shape and size of sidewall 118 provide light absorptive (anti-reflection) properties to photonic crystal structure layer 108 and thus to photovoltaic material surface 102 and photovoltaic material 100 .
  • sidewall 118 has a gradient refractive index profile, where the refractive index increases with depth 116 , which is known to be advantageously anti-reflective.
  • a gradient refractive index profile for sidewall 118 is substantially continuous.
  • Photovoltaic material 100 having photonic crystal structures 112 and specifically the shape and size of sidewall 118 also exhibit parallel-to-interface refraction, or another mechanism that exhibits nearly parallel-to-interface light bending phenomena, the effect of which is a positive or negative refraction of light inside the photonic crystal structure.
  • light interacting with photonic crystal structures 112 may be bent nearly perpendicularly.
  • the optical path length of the light thus increases and vortex-like concentration of light at “hot spots” within photovoltaic material 100 occurs.
  • photonic crystal structures 112 have shown to limit the dependence of light absorbance on thickness of material. Thin 10 ⁇ m planar photovoltaic material was shown to have inferior absorbance compared to thicker 500 ⁇ m planar photovoltaic material. As shown in FIG. 2 , photovoltaic material 100 , i.e., with photonic crystal structures 112 , having a thickness 106 of 10 ⁇ m showed vastly improved performance over a wide range of wavelengths compared to the 500 ⁇ m planar photovoltaic material, but also showed comparable performance to photovoltaic material 100 having a thickness 106 of 500 ⁇ m.
  • some embodiments of the disclosed subject matter include a method 300 of making a high absorption photovoltaic material.
  • a photovoltaic material is provided including a photovoltaic material surface and an opposite second surface.
  • a photoresist layer is applied to the photovoltaic material surface.
  • photoresist layer is applied 304 using a suitable photolithography process.
  • at least one hole is provided in the photoresist layer.
  • the at least one hole is provided 306 after the photoresist is applied 304 .
  • the at least one hole is provided 306 as the photoresist is being applied 304 .
  • the at least one hole is an array of holes.
  • the array of holes is a uniform array.
  • the array of holes has simple cubic geometry.
  • the holes are spaced apart between about 1 ⁇ m and about 1.5 ⁇ m.
  • the photovoltaic material surface having the photoresist layer is dry etched.
  • dry etching 308 is a reactive-ion etching process.
  • the holes discussed above extend through the photoresist layer to expose the photovoltaic material surface beneath and define where photonic crystal structures 112 are etched.
  • the photovoltaic material surface is dry etched at a predetermined wattage.
  • the predetermined wattage is relatively low for limiting etching damage and surface roughness at sidewall 118 .
  • the predetermined wattage is about 100 watts.
  • the predetermined wattage is below 100 watts.
  • predetermined wattage is below about 50 watts.
  • the photovoltaic material surface is dry etched using a gas mixture including an etchant component and a passivation component.
  • the gas mixture has a high ratio of the etchant component to the passivation component. In some embodiments, the gas mixture ratio is greater than about 2 to 1 etchant component to passivation component. In some embodiments, the gas mixture ratio is at least about 3 to 1 etchant component to passivation component. In some embodiments, the gas mixture ratio is greater than about 3 to 1 etchant component to passivation component.
  • the etchant component and the passivation component each include a halogen atom. In some embodiments, the etchant component and the passivation component each include a fluorine or a chlorine. In some embodiments, the etchant component and the passivation component are SF 6 and CHF 3 or Cl 2 and BCl 3 .
  • the arrangement of the photonic crystal structures etched into the photovoltaic surface follows the arrangement of the holes in the photoresist layer. Because of the high ratio of etchant component to passivation, dry etching 308 is more isotropic, etching in horizontal as well as vertical directions. However, the undesired roughness one might expect from the high etchant component ratio is mitigated by the presence of the passivation component.
  • the passivation component creates a passivation layer at the surface during etching, which slows the etching down and also limits isotropic undercutting.
  • the photoresist layer is removed from the photovoltaic material surface after dry etching.
  • an anti-reflective coating is deposited on the photovoltaic material surface.
  • an oxidation process is used to deposit the anti-reflective coating.
  • an annealing process is used with the oxidation process to deposit the anti-reflective coating.
  • a chemical vapor deposition process is used to deposit the anti-reflective coating, e.g., plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition.
  • an atomic layer deposition process is used to deposit the anti-reflective coating.
  • the photovoltaic materials of the present disclosure include a photonic crystal structure layer that increases absorption versus a planar photovoltaic material, particularly at higher wavelengths. Because of this photonic crystal structure layer, more light is therefore available within the photovoltaic material when incorporated into a solar cell, and the solar cell can operate at a higher efficiency, i.e., produce more energy per unit time.
  • the photovoltaic materials can also be produced using significantly less material, on the order of 50 times less, without sacrificing performance. The material cost for each solar cell thus decreases, allowing for the production of more solar cells that in turn results in the production of more energy.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
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  • Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
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  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
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US16/099,081 2016-05-06 2017-05-08 High absorption photovoltaic material and methods of making the same Abandoned US20190140115A1 (en)

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US16/099,081 US20190140115A1 (en) 2016-05-06 2017-05-08 High absorption photovoltaic material and methods of making the same
PCT/US2017/031556 WO2017193125A1 (fr) 2016-05-06 2017-05-08 Matériau photovoltaïque haute absorption et ses procédés de fabrication

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US7485799B2 (en) * 2002-05-07 2009-02-03 John Michael Guerra Stress-induced bandgap-shifted semiconductor photoelectrolytic/photocatalytic/photovoltaic surface and method for making same
JPWO2005071451A1 (ja) * 2004-01-22 2007-12-27 松下電器産業株式会社 光デバイス，及びフォトニック結晶スラブの製造方法
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WO2017193125A1 (fr) 2017-11-09

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