A flexible substrate material having opposed front and back sides and extending in an X-Y plane, the front side being provided with a first electrode layer and further provided with at least one thin film to form at least one thin film device stack; the thin film device stack extending from the X-Y plane in a Z direction perpendicular to the X-Y plane to a distance T; the substrate material having at least one protective structure applied to at least one of the substrate material sides, the first electrode layer and the at least one thin film; the at least one protective structure extending in the Z direction to a distance S from the X-Y plane, the distance S being greater than the distance T.

Thermocompression bonding approaches for foil-based metallization of non-metal surfaces of solar cells, and the resulting solar cells, are described. For example, a solar cell includes a substrate and a plurality of alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions disposed in or above the substrate. A plurality of conductive contact structures is electrically connected to the plurality of alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions. Each conductive contact structure includes a metal foil portion disposed in direct contact with a corresponding one of the alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions.

A system including a solar module installed on a roof deck, including a superstrate layer, an encapsulant having an upper layer and a lower layer, and a photovoltaic layer intermediate the upper layer and the lower layer of the encapsulant. An upper surface of the superstrate layer includes an indentation pattern. The indentation pattern includes a mesh of indentations indented into the upper surface of the superstrate layer and a plurality of openings defined by the mesh of indentations.

A solar cell manufacturing method including: forming, on one surface of a first conductivity-type semiconductor substrate, a first doped layer in which second conductivity-type impurities are diffused in a first concentration, and a second doped layer in which the second conductivity-type impurities are diffused in a second concentration lower than the first concentration, the second doped layer has surface roughness different from the first doped layer; and forming a metal electrode on the first doped layer to be electrically connected to the first doped layer, wherein a position of the first doped layer is detected based on a difference in light reflectance between the first and second doped layers, which results from a difference in surface roughness between the first and second doped layers, and then the metal electrode is formed in alignment with a detected position of the first doped layer.

This invention relates to a novel structure of photovoltaic devices (e.g. photovoltaic cells also called as solar cells) are provided. The cells are based on the micro or nano scaled structures which could not only increase the surface area but also have the capability of reducing the reflection and increasing the absorption of incident light. More specifically, the structures are based on 3D structure which are made of electric materials covering semiconductors, insulators, dielectric, polymer, and metallic type materials. By using such structures reflection loss of the light from the cell is significantly reduced, increasing the absorption, which results in increasing the conversion efficiency of the solar cell, and reducing the usage of material while increasing the flexibility of the solar cell. The structures can be also used in other optical devices wherein the reflection loss and absorption are required to enhance significantly improve the device performances.

To impart antiglare properties without reducing the amount of transmitted light, a method for processing a surface of light-transmitting-glass according to the present invention comprises a blasting step of ejecting abrasive grains with particle sizes of #800 to #3000 (average particle diameter 14 μm to 4 μm) such as WA (white alundum: high-purity alumina) having higher hardness than that of the glass onto a light-receiving surface of the glass having light-transmitting property to be processed for forming indentations and protrusions in the light-receiving surface of the glass, and after the blasting step, a hydrofluoric acid treatment step of immersing the light-receiving surface of the glass into a hydrofluoric acid solution in 10% to 20% concentration for 30 to 600 seconds thereby increase a height (amplitude) of indentations and protrusions of the surface of light-transmitting-glass.

Photovoltaic structures are disclosed. The structures can comprise randomly or periodically structured layers, a dielectric layer to reduce back diffusion of charge carriers, and a metallic layer to reflect photons back towards the absorbing semiconductor layers. This design can increase efficiency of photovoltaic structures. The structures can be fabricated by nanoimprint.

Methods of fabricating solar cell emitter regions with differentiated P-type and N-type regions architectures, and resulting solar cells, are described. In an example, a back contact solar cell can include a substrate having a light-receiving surface and a back surface. A first polycrystalline silicon emitter region of a first conductivity type is disposed on a first thin dielectric layer disposed on the back surface of the substrate. A second polycrystalline silicon emitter region of a second, different, conductivity type is disposed on a second thin dielectric layer disposed on the back surface of the substrate. A third thin dielectric layer is disposed over an exposed outer portion of the first polycrystalline silicon emitter region and is disposed laterally directly between the first and second polycrystalline silicon emitter regions. A first conductive contact structure is disposed on the first polycrystalline silicon emitter region. A second conductive contact structure is disposed on the second polycrystalline silicon emitter region. Metallization methods, include etching techniques for forming a first and second conductive contact structure are also described.

Thermocompression bonding approaches for foil-based metallization of non-metal surfaces of solar cells, and the resulting solar cells, are described. For example, a solar cell includes a substrate and a plurality of alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions disposed in or above the substrate. A plurality of conductive contact structures is electrically connected to the plurality of alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions. Each conductive contact structure includes a metal foil portion disposed in direct contact with a corresponding one of the alternating N-type and P-type semiconductor regions.

The present invention provides an optical semiconductor device in which damage of a lens when being mounted and mounting displacement due to suction failures of a chip can be suppressed.

An optical semiconductor device according to an embodiment includes: a semiconductor substrate having a first surface and a second surface facing the first surface; an electrode formed over the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; an optical element that is electrically coupled to the electrode and is formed in the semiconductor substrate; and a lens arranged on the second surface side of the optical element. A concave part is formed in the second surface of the semiconductor substrate, and the lens is arranged at the bottom of the concave part. A top part on the second surface side of the lens is located on the first surface side relative to the second surface located around the concave part.