This solar-cell module and method is provided with a plurality of solar cells and a connecting member that connects the light-receiving-surface side of one solar cell to the back-surface side of an adjacent solar cell. Said connecting member comprises a conductor that includes the following: a flat section laid out on the light-receiving-surface side of the aforementioned one solar cell, a flat section laid out on the back-surface side of the other solar cell, and a middle section that joins said flat sections to each other. The hardness of a boundary region between one of the flat sections and the middle section is no more than 1.25 times the hardness of that flat section.

Disclosed are a precursor for preparing a light absorption layer of a solar cell including (a) an aggregate-phase composite including a first phase including a copper (Cu)-tin (Sn) bimetallic metal and a second phase including zinc (Zn)-containing chalcogenide, or including the first phase including a copper (Cu)-tin (Sn) bimetallic metal, the second phase including zinc (Zn)-containing chalcogenide and a third phase including copper (Cu)-containing chalcogenide; or (b) core-shell structured nanoparticles including a core including copper (Cu)-tin (Sn) bimetallic metal nanoparticles and a shell including zinc (Zn)-containing chalcogenide, or the zinc (Zn)-containing chalcogenide and copper (Cu)-containing chalcogenide; or (c) a mixture thereof, and a method of preparing the same.

The present invention relates to a solar cell comprising a heterojunction photoelectric device comprising, a front electrode layer, a back electrode layer comprising a metallic contact layer, a light-absorbing silicon layer arranged between said front electrode and said back electrode layers and a doped silicon-based layer arranged between said light-absorbing silicon layer and said back electrode layer, characterized in that said heterojunction photoelectric device further comprises a wide band gap material layer having an electronic band gap greater than 1.4 eV, said wide band gap material layer being applied on a surface of the light-absorbing silicon layer between said light-absorbing silicon layer and said doped silicon-based layer. The present heterojunction layer or stack of layers is compatible with thermal annealing and firing processes at T above 600° C.

In one aspect, the present invention provides a silicon photodetector having a surface layer that is doped with sulfur inclusions with an average concentration in a range of about 0.5 atom percent to about 1.5 atom percent. The surface layer forms a diode junction with an underlying portion of the substrate. A plurality of electrical contacts allow application of a reverse bias voltage to the junction in order to facilitate generation of an electrical signal, e.g., a photocurrent, in response to irradiation of the surface layer. The photodetector exhibits a responsivity greater than about 1 A/W for incident wavelengths in a range of about 250 nm to about 1050 nm, and a responsivity greater than about 0.1 A/W for longer wavelengths, e.g., up to about 3.5 microns.

A method is provided for the processing of a device having a crystalline silicon region containing an internal hydrogen source. The method comprises: i) applying encapsulating material to each of the front and rear surfaces of the device to form a lamination; ii) applying pressure to the lamination and heating the lamination to bond the encapsulating material to the device; and iii) cooling the device, where the heating step or cooling step or both are completed under illumination.

In general, the invention relates to a paste comprising:

i) silver particles;
ii) a particulate lead-silicate glass comprising iia) at least one oxide of silicon; iib) at least one oxide of lead; iic) at least one chloride; iid) optionally at least one further oxide being different from components iia) and iib);
iii) an organic vehicle.

The invention also relates to a solar cell precursor, to a process for the preparation of a solar cell, to a solar cell obtainable by this process, to a module comprising such a solar cell and to the use of a particulate lead-silicate glass as a component in a silver paste that can be used for the formation of an electrode.

A photovoltaic device and a method of forming a contact stack of the photovoltaic device are disclosed. The photovoltaic device may include a first layer deposited on a semiconductor layer including a compound semiconductor material. The photovoltaic device may also include a dopant layer comprising tin (Sn) deposited on the first layer. The photovoltaic device may further include a conductive layer deposited or provided over the dopant layer to form a contact stack with the first layer and the dopant layer.

Described herein is a diffusion-based ex-situ group V element doping method in the CdCl.sub.2 heat-treated polycrystalline CdTe film. The ex-situ doping using group V halides, such as PCl.sub.3, AsCl.sub.3, SbCl.sub.3, or BiCl.sub.3, demonstrated a promising PCE of ˜18% and long-term light soaking stability in CdSe/CdTe and CdS/CdTe devices with decent carrier concentration>10.sup.15 cm.sup.−3. This ex-situ solution or vapor process can provide a low-cost alternative pathway for effective doping of As, as well as P, Sb, and Bi, in CdTe solar cells with limited deviation from the current CdTe manufacturing process.

Disclosed are a single-source precursor for synthesizing metal chalcogenide nanoparticles for producing a light absorption layer of solar cells comprising a Group VI element linked as a ligand to any one metal selected from the group consisting of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and tin (Sn), metal chalcogenide nanoparticles produced by heat-treating at least one type of the single-source precursor, a method of preparing the same, a thin film produced using the same and a method of producing the thin film.

Embodiments of the invention provide a method of forming a group III-V material utilized in thin film transistor devices. In one embodiment, a gallium arsenide based (GaAs) layer with or without dopants formed from a solution based precursor may be utilized in thin film transistor devices. The gallium arsenide based (GaAs) layer formed from the solution based precursor may be incorporated in thin film transistor devices to improve device performance and device speed. In one embodiment, a thin film transistor structure includes a gate insulator layer disposed on a substrate, a GaAs based layer disposed over the gate insulator layer, and a source-drain metal electrode layer disposed adjacent to the GaAs based layer.