WO2011154033A2 - Method for marking a solar cell and solar cell - Google Patents

Method for marking a solar cell and solar cell Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2011154033A2
WO2011154033A2 PCT/EP2010/057939 EP2010057939W WO2011154033A2 WO 2011154033 A2 WO2011154033 A2 WO 2011154033A2 EP 2010057939 W EP2010057939 W EP 2010057939W WO 2011154033 A2 WO2011154033 A2 WO 2011154033A2
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
holes
marking
solar cell
multitude
identification mark
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/EP2010/057939
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
WO2011154033A3 (en
Inventor
Jörg Müller
Maximilian Scherff
Markus Hlusiak
Carsten Swiatkowski
Andreas Kux
Original Assignee
Q-Cells Se
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Publication date
Application filed by Q-Cells Se filed Critical Q-Cells Se
Priority to CN2010800673069A priority Critical patent/CN103038890A/en
Priority to PCT/EP2010/057939 priority patent/WO2011154033A2/en
Publication of WO2011154033A2 publication Critical patent/WO2011154033A2/en
Publication of WO2011154033A3 publication Critical patent/WO2011154033A3/en

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Classifications

    • 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
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L23/00—Details of semiconductor or other solid state devices
    • H01L23/544—Marks applied to semiconductor devices or parts, e.g. registration marks, alignment structures, wafer maps
    • 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
    • H01L31/0224—Electrodes
    • H01L31/022408—Electrodes for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier
    • H01L31/022425—Electrodes for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier for solar cells
    • H01L31/022441—Electrode arrangements specially adapted for back-contact solar cells
    • H01L31/02245—Electrode arrangements specially adapted for back-contact solar cells for metallisation wrap-through [MWT] type 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
    • H01L31/02—Details
    • H01L31/0224—Electrodes
    • H01L31/022408—Electrodes for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier
    • H01L31/022425—Electrodes for devices characterised by at least one potential jump barrier or surface barrier for solar cells
    • H01L31/022441—Electrode arrangements specially adapted for back-contact solar cells
    • H01L31/022458—Electrode arrangements specially adapted for back-contact solar cells for emitter wrap-through [EWT] type solar cells, e.g. interdigitated emitter-base back-contacts
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L2223/00—Details relating to semiconductor or other solid state devices covered by the group H01L23/00
    • H01L2223/544—Marks applied to semiconductor devices or parts
    • H01L2223/54413—Marks applied to semiconductor devices or parts comprising digital information, e.g. bar codes, data matrix
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L2223/00—Details relating to semiconductor or other solid state devices covered by the group H01L23/00
    • H01L2223/544—Marks applied to semiconductor devices or parts
    • H01L2223/54433—Marks applied to semiconductor devices or parts containing identification or tracking information
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L2223/00—Details relating to semiconductor or other solid state devices covered by the group H01L23/00
    • H01L2223/544—Marks applied to semiconductor devices or parts
    • H01L2223/54473—Marks applied to semiconductor devices or parts for use after dicing
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L2924/00—Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
    • H01L2924/0001—Technical content checked by a classifier
    • H01L2924/0002—Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00
    • 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

Definitions

  • the invention relates to a method for marking a solar cell as well as a solar cell. Marking may be necessary in order to be able to track a solar cell during the manufacturing process and afterwards.
  • such a marking consist of a print or etch mark comprising a numerical or alphanumerical code being printed or etched onto a surface of a substrate of the solar cell very early in the manufacturing process.
  • Other patterns e.g. a bar code, may also be useful, as long as they are suitable to uniquely identify the substrate.
  • Such a marking pattern needs to be robust enough to survive the many processing steps that are being performed on the substrate for producing the solar cell.
  • Patterns printed or etched onto the surface of the substrate are often in danger of being wiped off the surface during etching processes or covered during deposition processes necessary for the solar cell manufacture.
  • all such marking methods have also the disadvantage of requiring supplementary marking steps in addition to the solar cell manufacturing steps. Such additional steps add to the manufacturing time and costs for producing the solar cell.
  • the resulting marking on the solar cell should be reliable.
  • the invention is based on the concept of using a structure that is necessary for the function of the solar cell and modifying that structure in a manner that the modification may be utilized for identifying the solar cell during the
  • EWT emitter wrap through
  • MMWT metal wrap through
  • a solar cell substrate for example a semiconductor wafer.
  • a hole-drilling process a multitude of through-holes or apertures is formed in the substrate, each extending along the entire thickness of the substrate.
  • the hole drilling may be performed via etching methods or alternatively via laser drilling.
  • said through-holes are filled and / or their inside walls are covered with metal or a dopant source material during the process of forming EWT or MWT solar cells.
  • a dopant source material in a following step, the dopant is driven into the
  • At least some through-holes are utilized for marking the solar cell substrate.
  • all or at least a fraction out of the multitude of through-holes are used later on during the
  • EWT or MWT holes for the solar cell some of the through-holes are used for marking purposes by choosing their geometrical properties such that they represent an identification mark.
  • the identification mark may be selected beforehand for identifying the solar cell substrate during process steps of a manufacturing process for the solar cell or beyond.
  • marking through-holes may also act as EWT or MWT holes.
  • the set of marking through-holes and non marking through-holes may be mutually exclusive.
  • the through-holes may be of various shapes, they do not necessarily need to have a circular or oval cross-section, although such shapes are easy to produce and thus advantageous.
  • the marking through-holes representing the identification mark may be suitable size, shape, position relative to each other or relative to the substrate, or any other geometrical property that can be easily read during or in-between each manufacturing step or after the manufacture of the solar cell, e.g. before, during, or after the assembly of the solar cells into solar cell modules.
  • the representation via a geometrical property of the through-holes has the advantage that the identification mark may easily be read out via optical means, e.g. by reflecting a laser beam off the surface of the solar cell substrate.
  • the inside walls of substantially all or of said fraction of the multitude of through-holes may be filled or covered with metal or a dopant source material. Filling or covering the inside walls of substantially all through-holes means that not only the non- marking but also the marking through-holes are filled or have their inside walls covered. This way, also the marking through-holes may function as EWT or MWT through-holes.
  • the identification mark may advantageously be selected to comprise an alphanumeric code having one or more digits, while the multitude of through- holes are formed in a manner that each digit of the identification mark is represented by the geometrical property of one or more marking through - holes.
  • Said alphanumeric code may comprise a binary code, whereby each bit is represented by said geometrical property of one or more marking through - holes.
  • Other numerical systems may also be suitable as well as code systems comprising numbers, letters or other signs.
  • the geometrical property of the marking through- holes representing the identification mark comprises a divergence or variation of the geometrical property of the one or more marking through-holes compared to non-marking through-holes.
  • the marking through- holes may have a shape or a size distinguishing them from the other, non marking through-holes.
  • the through-holes may be formed in a regular pattern along the surface of the substrate, e.g. in a square, a rectangular, a radial, an elliptical, a spiral or any other suitable pattern.
  • the geometrical property advantageously comprises a displacement of one or more marking through-holes compared to non-marking through-holes in a regular pattern formed by the through-holes.
  • the through-holes penetrating the substrate form a regular pattern comprising a linear row of through-holes, whereby the geometrical property comprises a displacement along a displacement direction
  • the marking through-holes may be displaced parallel or along the row direction of the linear row. Alternatively they may be displaced perpendicular to the row direction or out of the linear row. In case a binary code system is used, a single displaced through-hole may represent a "1 ", while a non-displaced through- hole represents a "0". Alternatively, the amount or distance of displacement may represent a digit in a ternary, octal, duodecimal, hexadecimal or some other suitable system.
  • the through-holes in one advantageous embodiment form a rectangular or square matrix pattern, whereby the geometrical property comprises a displacement of one or more rows of marking through-holes compared to the rows of non-marking through-holes.
  • a row or a column may be displaced.
  • the displacement may be along a row direction of the displaced row, or perpendicular to that direction.
  • the displacement of one row may indicate a "1 " in a binary code.
  • the marking through-holes are positioned in a marking through-hole region of the solar cell substrate separate from non- marking through-holes.
  • a marking through-hole region may be positioned near an edge or a corner of the substrate surface. This way, the identification mark represented by the marking through-holes may be read out easily by pointing a read-out device at said region. While this embodiment may not have the advantage of avoiding a separate marking region, there is still the advantage that the marking may be performed without any additional processing steps, as the marking through-holes are formed during the same manufacturing step as the non-marking through-holes. Furthermore, the marking through-holes may have the same EWT or MWT function as the non- marking through-holes.
  • marking through-holes may be positioned among non-marking through-holes, while also placing marking through-holes in a region separate from the non-marking through-holes.
  • Fig. 1 depicts a top view on a solar cell substrate with a regular square pattern of through-holes
  • Fig. 2 shows a solar cell substrate with a through-hole pattern comprising marking through-hole rows
  • Fig. 3 shows a solar cell substrate with a through-hole pattern comprising a marking linear row
  • Fig. 4 shows a solar cell substrate with a through-hole pattern comprising a marking linear column
  • Fig. 5 shows a solar cell substrate with a marking through-hole region
  • Fig. 6 shows a solar cell substrate with a marking through-hole region
  • a substrate 1 of an emitter wrap through (EWT) or a metal wrap through (MWT) solar cell is shown schematically in Fig. 1.
  • the substrate 1 comprises through- holes 2, which are will be filled with metal and / or semiconductor material in order to direct electrons generated on the front side to the back side of the solar cell and thus allow for contacting the solar cell only on one side.
  • the through-holes 2 form a regular square pattern.
  • the through-holes 2 are depicted in Fig. 1 much larger than their actual dimensions. In reality they are much smaller in comparison to the dimensions of the substrate 1.
  • the number of holes shown in the Fig. to 6 may differ from the number of holes that might be produced in actual solar cells.
  • the number of through-holes in MWT solar cells is typically lower, while the number of through-holes in EWT solar cells is typically higher that shown in the Figures.
  • Fig. 2 shows a solar cell substrate 1 with a through-hole pattern similar to that in Fig. 1.
  • the through-holes 2 in Fig. 2 comprise columns of marking through- holes 21 , which are displaced by a certain distance from their "usual" position depicted in Fig. 1 , while their non-marking counterparts (non-marking through- holes 22) are not displaced.
  • a binary number is shown as an exemplary identification mark 7, which is being represented by the marking through-holes 21.
  • each column of marking through-holes 21 represents a binary "1 " in the identification mark 7.
  • the non- marking through-holes 22 may also be seen as marking through-holes, representing a binary "0". However, in the sense of this application, the non- displaced through-holes are called non-marking through-holes 22.
  • the identification mark 7 in Fig. 3 is represented by a single row of through-holes 2, defined herein as a marking linear row 3. While in a further linear row 4 adjacent to the marking linear row 3, the through- holes 2 are placed equidistantly along the row direction, the marking linear row 3 comprises marking through-holes 21 that are displaced along the row direction, each of them representing a "1 " in the identification mark 7.
  • Fig. 4 shows a solar cell substrate 1 with a through-hole 2 pattern, wherein the identification mark 7 is represented by a marking linear column 5.
  • the through-hole 2 patterns shown herein are square patterns, there is no particular difference between a column and a row.
  • the difference between the marking linear column 5 in Fig. 4 and the marking linear row 3 in Fig. 3 is that the marking through-holes 21 in the marking linear column 5 are displaced not along or parallel to a column direction, but perpendicular to it. In other words, they are displaced towards an adjacent further linear column 6.
  • the projections of the through-holes 2 of the marking linear column 5 remain equidistant.
  • a displacement direction, along which the marking through- holes 21 are displaced is parallel to the row direction of the marking linear row 3 in Fig. 3, while perpendicular to the column direction of the marking linear column 5 in Fig. 4.
  • the row direction of Fig. 3 and the column direction of Fig. 4 are equivalent.
  • An alternative way for representing the identification mark 7 by marking through-holes 21 is depicted in Fig. 5 and 6.
  • the solar cell substrate 1 comprises a number of marking through-holes 21 positioned in a marking through-hole region 8 separate from the non-marking through-holes 22, which are arranged in a square pattern just as in Fig. 1.
  • the marking through-holes 21 in the marking through-hole region 8 are arranged in a two-dimensional matrix in order to be able to contain a larger amount of information. They may for example be arranged to form a common matrix barcodes. Alternatively the marking through-holes 21 may be arranged in any other fashion, such as in a linear row or in a circular pattern.
  • Fig. 6 shows a solar cell substrate 1 having marking through-holes 21 and non- marking through-holes 22 arranged in the same way as in Fig. 5. However, the marking through-hole region 8 of the solar cell substrate 1 is separated from non-marking through-holes 22 by edge isolation 9 enveloping the non-marking through-holes 22 along the surface of the substrate 1.
  • the edge isolation 9 may be achieved via a laser source.
  • the identification mark 7 is represented only through adjusting the positions of the marking through-holes 21 , other physical properties of the marking through- holes 21 may as well or instead be suitable.
  • the sizes of the marking through-holes 21 may be smaller and / or larger than the sizes of the non-marking through-holes 22.
  • changing their shape is also possible.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Sustainable Energy (AREA)
  • Sustainable Development (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
  • Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
  • Power Engineering (AREA)
  • Electromagnetism (AREA)
  • Photovoltaic Devices (AREA)

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for marking a solar cell, the method comprising the following steps: providing the solar cell substrate (1); selecting an identification mark (7) for identifying the solar cell substrate (1) during process steps of a manufacturing process for the solar cell; and forming a multitude of through-holes (2) through the substrate, whereby at least a fraction of the multitude of through-holes (2) is intended as emitter wrap through or metal wrap through holes for the solar cell, such that the identification mark is represented by a geometrical property of one or more marking through-holes (21) selected from the multitude of through-holes (2), as well as a solar cell.

Description

Title:
Method for marking a solar cell and solar cell Description:
The invention relates to a method for marking a solar cell as well as a solar cell. Marking may be necessary in order to be able to track a solar cell during the manufacturing process and afterwards.
Regularly, such a marking consist of a print or etch mark comprising a numerical or alphanumerical code being printed or etched onto a surface of a substrate of the solar cell very early in the manufacturing process. Other patterns, e.g. a bar code, may also be useful, as long as they are suitable to uniquely identify the substrate. Such a marking pattern needs to be robust enough to survive the many processing steps that are being performed on the substrate for producing the solar cell.
Patterns printed or etched onto the surface of the substrate are often in danger of being wiped off the surface during etching processes or covered during deposition processes necessary for the solar cell manufacture. On the other hand, all such marking methods have also the disadvantage of requiring supplementary marking steps in addition to the solar cell manufacturing steps. Such additional steps add to the manufacturing time and costs for producing the solar cell.
It is an object of the present invention to provide for a method for marking a solar cell and a solar cell allowing efficient tracking of the solar cell during the manufacturing process, while minimizing cost and manufacturing time.
Furthermore, the resulting marking on the solar cell should be reliable.
The object is achieved in this invention by providing a method for marking a solar cell with the features of claim 1 and a solar cell with the features of claim 11. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are subject of the subclaims.
The invention is based on the concept of using a structure that is necessary for the function of the solar cell and modifying that structure in a manner that the modification may be utilized for identifying the solar cell during the
manufacturing process and beyond. As such a structure, it is suggested to utilize the through-holes formed in a substrate for forming an emitter wrap through (EWT) or a metal wrap through (MWT) solar cell.
During the manufacturing of an EWT or an MWT solar cell, first a solar cell substrate is provided, for example a semiconductor wafer. Using a hole-drilling process, a multitude of through-holes or apertures is formed in the substrate, each extending along the entire thickness of the substrate. The hole drilling may be performed via etching methods or alternatively via laser drilling.
During the then following manufacturing steps, said through-holes are filled and / or their inside walls are covered with metal or a dopant source material during the process of forming EWT or MWT solar cells. In case of using a dopant source material, in a following step, the dopant is driven into the
semiconductor of the inner walls of the holes to form an emitter layer.
Adding to this general process, at least some through-holes are utilized for marking the solar cell substrate. In other words, while all or at least a fraction out of the multitude of through-holes are used later on during the
manufacturing process as EWT or MWT holes for the solar cell, some of the through-holes are used for marking purposes by choosing their geometrical properties such that they represent an identification mark. The identification mark may be selected beforehand for identifying the solar cell substrate during process steps of a manufacturing process for the solar cell or beyond.
Some or all of the marking through-holes may also act as EWT or MWT holes. Alternatively, the set of marking through-holes and non marking through-holes may be mutually exclusive. Furthermore, the through-holes may be of various shapes, they do not necessarily need to have a circular or oval cross-section, although such shapes are easy to produce and thus advantageous.
As a geometrical property of the marking through-holes representing the identification mark may be suitable size, shape, position relative to each other or relative to the substrate, or any other geometrical property that can be easily read during or in-between each manufacturing step or after the manufacture of the solar cell, e.g. before, during, or after the assembly of the solar cells into solar cell modules. The representation via a geometrical property of the through-holes has the advantage that the identification mark may easily be read out via optical means, e.g. by reflecting a laser beam off the surface of the solar cell substrate.
In order to afterwards use them for EWT or MWT purposes, the inside walls of substantially all or of said fraction of the multitude of through-holes may be filled or covered with metal or a dopant source material. Filling or covering the inside walls of substantially all through-holes means that not only the non- marking but also the marking through-holes are filled or have their inside walls covered. This way, also the marking through-holes may function as EWT or MWT through-holes.
The identification mark may advantageously be selected to comprise an alphanumeric code having one or more digits, while the multitude of through- holes are formed in a manner that each digit of the identification mark is represented by the geometrical property of one or more marking through - holes. Said alphanumeric code may comprise a binary code, whereby each bit is represented by said geometrical property of one or more marking through - holes. Other numerical systems may also be suitable as well as code systems comprising numbers, letters or other signs.
In a very useful embodiment, the geometrical property of the marking through- holes representing the identification mark comprises a divergence or variation of the geometrical property of the one or more marking through-holes compared to non-marking through-holes. For example, the marking through- holes may have a shape or a size distinguishing them from the other, non marking through-holes. Advantageously it is assured during the forming of the through-holes that at least one non-marking through-hole is placed between two marking through- holes. This way a difference in geometrical property of the marking through- hole may be reliably detected by comparison to the neighboring non-marking through-holes.
The through-holes may be formed in a regular pattern along the surface of the substrate, e.g. in a square, a rectangular, a radial, an elliptical, a spiral or any other suitable pattern. In this case, the geometrical property advantageously comprises a displacement of one or more marking through-holes compared to non-marking through-holes in a regular pattern formed by the through-holes.
In one embodiment, the through-holes penetrating the substrate form a regular pattern comprising a linear row of through-holes, whereby the geometrical property comprises a displacement along a displacement direction
perpendicular or parallel to a row direction of the linear row. In other words, the marking through-holes may be displaced parallel or along the row direction of the linear row. Alternatively they may be displaced perpendicular to the row direction or out of the linear row. In case a binary code system is used, a single displaced through-hole may represent a "1 ", while a non-displaced through- hole represents a "0". Alternatively, the amount or distance of displacement may represent a digit in a ternary, octal, duodecimal, hexadecimal or some other suitable system.
For minimizing read-out errors, the through-holes in one advantageous embodiment form a rectangular or square matrix pattern, whereby the geometrical property comprises a displacement of one or more rows of marking through-holes compared to the rows of non-marking through-holes. Depending on the orientation of the substrate, a row or a column may be displaced. In either case, the displacement may be along a row direction of the displaced row, or perpendicular to that direction. As in the above described case of one or more marking through-holes being displaced, the displacement of one row may indicate a "1 " in a binary code.
In an alternative embodiment, the marking through-holes are positioned in a marking through-hole region of the solar cell substrate separate from non- marking through-holes. Such a marking through-hole region may be positioned near an edge or a corner of the substrate surface. This way, the identification mark represented by the marking through-holes may be read out easily by pointing a read-out device at said region. While this embodiment may not have the advantage of avoiding a separate marking region, there is still the advantage that the marking may be performed without any additional processing steps, as the marking through-holes are formed during the same manufacturing step as the non-marking through-holes. Furthermore, the marking through-holes may have the same EWT or MWT function as the non- marking through-holes.
This alternative embodiment may in fact also be combined with the other embodiments described above. That is, marking through-holes may be positioned among non-marking through-holes, while also placing marking through-holes in a region separate from the non-marking through-holes.
In said alternative embodiment, it may be advantageous to perform a step of separating the marking through-hole region of the solar cell substrate from non-marking through-holes by edge isolation. That way, the marking through- hole region lies outside of the area isolated from the edge. The edge isolation may be performed as laser edge isolation. Some examples of embodiments of the invention will be explained in more detail in the following description with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 depicts a top view on a solar cell substrate with a regular square pattern of through-holes;
Fig. 2 shows a solar cell substrate with a through-hole pattern comprising marking through-hole rows;
Fig. 3 shows a solar cell substrate with a through-hole pattern comprising a marking linear row;
Fig. 4 shows a solar cell substrate with a through-hole pattern comprising a marking linear column;
Fig. 5 shows a solar cell substrate with a marking through-hole region
separate from non-marking through-holes; and
Fig. 6 shows a solar cell substrate with a marking through-hole region
separated from non-marking through-holes by edge isolation.
A substrate 1 of an emitter wrap through (EWT) or a metal wrap through (MWT) solar cell is shown schematically in Fig. 1. The substrate 1 comprises through- holes 2, which are will be filled with metal and / or semiconductor material in order to direct electrons generated on the front side to the back side of the solar cell and thus allow for contacting the solar cell only on one side. In the embodiment shown here, the through-holes 2 form a regular square pattern. The through-holes 2 are depicted in Fig. 1 much larger than their actual dimensions. In reality they are much smaller in comparison to the dimensions of the substrate 1.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the number of holes shown in the Fig. to 6 may differ from the number of holes that might be produced in actual solar cells. In particular, the number of through-holes in MWT solar cells is typically lower, while the number of through-holes in EWT solar cells is typically higher that shown in the Figures.
Fig. 2 shows a solar cell substrate 1 with a through-hole pattern similar to that in Fig. 1. The through-holes 2 in Fig. 2 comprise columns of marking through- holes 21 , which are displaced by a certain distance from their "usual" position depicted in Fig. 1 , while their non-marking counterparts (non-marking through- holes 22) are not displaced. Above the substrate 1 in Fig. 2, a binary number is shown as an exemplary identification mark 7, which is being represented by the marking through-holes 21. In this embodiment, each column of marking through-holes 21 represents a binary "1 " in the identification mark 7. The non- marking through-holes 22 may also be seen as marking through-holes, representing a binary "0". However, in the sense of this application, the non- displaced through-holes are called non-marking through-holes 22.
In contrast to Fig. 2, the identification mark 7 in Fig. 3 is represented by a single row of through-holes 2, defined herein as a marking linear row 3. While in a further linear row 4 adjacent to the marking linear row 3, the through- holes 2 are placed equidistantly along the row direction, the marking linear row 3 comprises marking through-holes 21 that are displaced along the row direction, each of them representing a "1 " in the identification mark 7.
Fig. 4 shows a solar cell substrate 1 with a through-hole 2 pattern, wherein the identification mark 7 is represented by a marking linear column 5. As the through-hole 2 patterns shown herein are square patterns, there is no particular difference between a column and a row. The difference between the marking linear column 5 in Fig. 4 and the marking linear row 3 in Fig. 3 is that the marking through-holes 21 in the marking linear column 5 are displaced not along or parallel to a column direction, but perpendicular to it. In other words, they are displaced towards an adjacent further linear column 6. Along the column direction, the projections of the through-holes 2 of the marking linear column 5 remain equidistant.
In other words, a displacement direction, along which the marking through- holes 21 are displaced, is parallel to the row direction of the marking linear row 3 in Fig. 3, while perpendicular to the column direction of the marking linear column 5 in Fig. 4. However, as said previously, it should be noted that the row direction of Fig. 3 and the column direction of Fig. 4 are equivalent. An alternative way for representing the identification mark 7 by marking through-holes 21 is depicted in Fig. 5 and 6. In Fig. 5, the solar cell substrate 1 comprises a number of marking through-holes 21 positioned in a marking through-hole region 8 separate from the non-marking through-holes 22, which are arranged in a square pattern just as in Fig. 1. The marking through-holes 21 in the marking through-hole region 8 are arranged in a two-dimensional matrix in order to be able to contain a larger amount of information. They may for example be arranged to form a common matrix barcodes. Alternatively the marking through-holes 21 may be arranged in any other fashion, such as in a linear row or in a circular pattern.
Fig. 6 shows a solar cell substrate 1 having marking through-holes 21 and non- marking through-holes 22 arranged in the same way as in Fig. 5. However, the marking through-hole region 8 of the solar cell substrate 1 is separated from non-marking through-holes 22 by edge isolation 9 enveloping the non-marking through-holes 22 along the surface of the substrate 1. The edge isolation 9 may be achieved via a laser source.
It should be noted that while in the examples shown in Fig. 1 to 6, the identification mark 7 is represented only through adjusting the positions of the marking through-holes 21 , other physical properties of the marking through- holes 21 may as well or instead be suitable. For example, the sizes of the marking through-holes 21 may be smaller and / or larger than the sizes of the non-marking through-holes 22. In addition or alternatively to varying the position or the size of the marking through-holes 21 , changing their shape is also possible. Reference Numerals: substrate
2 through-holes
21 marking through-holes
22 non-marking through-holes
3 marking linear row
4 further linear row
5 marking linear column
6 further linear column
7 identification mark
8 marking through-hole region
9 edge isolation

Claims

Claims:
1 . Method for marking a solar cell, comprising the following steps:
- Providing the solar cell substrate (1 );
- Selecting an identification mark (7) for identifying the solar cell substrate (1 ) during process steps of a manufacturing process for the solar cell;
- Forming a multitude of through-holes (2) through the substrate, whereby at least a fraction of the multitude of through-holes (2) is intended as emitter wrap through or metal wrap through holes for the solar cell, such that the identification mark is represented by a geometrical property of one or more marking through-holes (21 ) selected from the multitude of through-holes (2).
2. Method according to claim 1 , characterized by a step of filling or covering the inside of substantially all or of said fraction of the multitude of through-holes (2) with metal or a dopant source material.
3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the identification mark is selected to comprise an alphanumeric code having one or more digits, and the multitude of through-holes are formed in a manner that each digit of the identification mark is represented by the geometrical property of one or more marking through-holes.
4. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the geometrical property of the marking through-holes representing the identification mark comprises a divergence of the geometrical property of the one or more marking through-holes compared to non-marking through-holes.
5. Method according to claim 4, characterized in that during forming of the through-holes, at least one non-marking through-hole is placed between two marking through-holes.
6. Method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the geometrical property comprises a displacement of one or more marking through-holes compared to non-marking through-holes in a regular pattern formed by the through-holes.
7. Method according to claim 6, characterized in that the through-holes form a regular pattern comprising a linear row of through-holes, whereby the geometrical property comprises a displacement along a displacement direction perpendicular or parallel to a row direction of the linear row.
8. Method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the through-holes form a rectangular or square matrix pattern, whereby the geometrical property comprises a displacement of one or more rows of marking through-holes compared to the rows of non-marking through-holes.
9. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the marking through-holes are positioned in a marking through-hole region of the solar cell substrate separate from non-marking through-holes.
10. Method according to claim 9, characterized by a step of separating the marking through-hole region of the solar cell substrate from non-marking through-holes by edge isolation.
1 1 . Solar cell comprising a solar cell substrate and a regular pattern of a multitude of through-holes formed through the solar cell substrate, whereby a fraction of the multitude of through-holes are emitter wrap through or metal wrap through holes, characterized in that the multitude of through-holes comprise at least one or more marking through-holes with a geometrical property, which represents an identification mark identifying the solar cell substrate.
PCT/EP2010/057939 2010-06-07 2010-06-07 Method for marking a solar cell and solar cell WO2011154033A2 (en)

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ITUD20110090A1 (en) * 2011-06-14 2012-12-15 Applied Materials Italia Srl PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL PROVIDED WITH AN IDENTIFICATION CODE AND PROCEDURE TO REALIZE IT
US9660121B2 (en) 2012-09-11 2017-05-23 Rec Solar Pte. Ltd. Method for fabricating a solar module of rear contact solar cells using linear ribbon-type connector strips and respective solar module
US10396227B2 (en) 2012-09-11 2019-08-27 Rec Solar Pte. Ltd. Method for fabricating a solar module of rear contact solar cells using linear ribbon-type connector strips and respective solar module
US11183606B2 (en) 2012-09-11 2021-11-23 Rec Solar Pte. Ltd. Method for fabricating a solar module of rear contact solar cells using linear ribbon-type connector strips and respective solar module
US11715806B2 (en) 2012-09-11 2023-08-01 Rec Solar Pte. Ltd. Method for fabricating a solar module of rear contact solar cells using linear ribbon-type connector strips and respective solar module
CN103840016A (en) * 2012-11-27 2014-06-04 陕西天宏硅材料有限责任公司 Solar cell with three gate electrode structures
WO2015012008A1 (en) * 2013-07-25 2015-01-29 シャープ株式会社 Back electrode-type solar cell, solar cell module using back electrode-type solar cell, and back electrode-type solar cell manufacturing method
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JPWO2018079257A1 (en) * 2016-10-26 2019-04-11 株式会社カネカ Photoelectric conversion element

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