A photovoltaic cell array and a photovoltaic module are provided. The photovoltaic cell array includes multiple solar cells and a flexible metal conductive strip. Each solar cell includes an upper surface, upper segment electrodes, a lower surface, and lower segment electrodes. A first solar cell including a first overlap region is adjacent to a second solar cell including a second overlap region. The second overlap region, a third overlap region of the flexible metal conductive strip, and the first overlap region are sequentially stacked. The flexible metal conductive strip is welded to only one lower segment electrode and only one upper segment electrode. The lower segment electrodes of the first solar cell are outside the first overlap region, and the upper segment electrodes are outside the second overlap region.

The invention relates to a back-side contact solar cell including a semiconductor substrate, in particular a silicon wafer, including a front side and a back side, the solar cell having electrodes of a first polarity and electrodes of a second polarity on the back side, wherein a tunnel layer and a highly doped silicon layer are positioned under the electrodes of a first polarity, and the electrodes of the second polarity make direct electrical and mechanical contact with the semiconductor substrate.

A method for producing a layer of solid material includes: providing a solid body having opposing first and second surfaces, the second surface being part of the layer of solid material; generating defects by means of multiphoton excitation caused by at least one laser beam penetrating into the solid body via the second surface and acting in an inner structure of the solid body to generate a detachment plane, the detachment plane including regions with different concentrations of defects; providing a polymer layer on the solid body; and generating mechanical stress in the solid body such that a crack propagates in the solid body along the detachment plane and the layer of solid material separates from the solid body along the crack.

A laminate that can be used for diffusing an impurity diffusion component into a semiconductor substrate and manufactured by a method with good film formability, and which allows sufficient diffusion of the impurity diffusion component; a method for manufacturing the laminate; and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor substrate using the laminate. The laminate includes a diffusion-undergoing semiconductor substrate, an amine compound layer, and an impurity diffusion component layer, the amine compound layer is in contact with one main surface of the diffusion-undergoing semiconductor substrate, the impurity diffusion component layer is in contact with a main surface of the amine compound layer, the main surface is not in contact with the diffusion-undergoing semiconductor substrate, and the amine compound layer includes an amine compound including two or more nitrogen atoms and having an amino group constituted by at least one of the two or more nitrogen atoms; and/or an amine compound residue having one or more amino groups and bonding to the main surface via a covalent bond.

A solar cell including a semiconductor substrate having a first conductivity type an emitter region, having a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type, on a first main surface of the semiconductor substrate an emitter electrode which is in contact with the emitter region a base region having the first conductivity type a base electrode which is in contact with the base region and an insulator film for preventing an electrical short-circuit between the emitter region and the base region, wherein the insulator film is made of a polyimide, and the insulator film has a C.sub.6H.sub.11O.sub.2 detection count number of 100 or less when the insulator film is irradiated with Bi.sub.5.sup.++ ions with an acceleration voltage of 30 kV and an ion current of 0.2 pA by a TOF-SIMS method. The solar cell can have excellent weather resistance and high photoelectric conversion characteristics.

A moldable photovoltaic module is provided. The module includes a flexible polymeric flex-circuit substrate having an electrically conductive printed wiring pattern and solder pads defined on it. Small photovoltaic cells are affixed to the flex-circuit substrate by back-surface contacts in electrical contact with the solder pads. At least one thermoformable polymeric film is joined to the flex-circuit substrate. Each said solder pad comprises a solder composition that, after an initial melt, has a melting point that lies above at least a portion of the temperature range for thermoforming the polymeric film.

A back contact structure of a solar cell, includes: a silicon substrate, the silicon substrate including a back surface including a plurality of recesses disposed at intervals; a plurality of first conductive regions and a plurality of second conductive regions disposed alternately in the plurality of recesses, where each first conductive region includes a first dielectric layer and a first doped region which are disposed successively in the plurality of recesses, and each second conductive region includes a second doped region; a second dielectric layer disposed between the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions; and a conductive layer disposed on the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions.

A method for using an integrated battery and device structure includes using two or more stacked electrochemical cells integrated with each other formed overlying a surface of a substrate. The two or more stacked electrochemical cells include related two or more different electrochemistries with one or more devices formed using one or more sequential deposition processes. The one or more devices are integrated with the two or more stacked electrochemical cells to form the integrated battery and device structure as a unified structure overlying the surface of the substrate. The one or more stacked electrochemical cells and the one or more devices are integrated as the unified structure using the one or more sequential deposition processes. The integrated battery and device structure is configured such that the two or more stacked electrochemical cells and one or more devices are in electrical, chemical, and thermal conduction with each other.

A solar cell is provided with: a semiconductor substrate having a light-receiving surface and a non-light-receiving surface; a PN junction section formed on the semiconductor substrate; a passivation layer formed on the light-receiving surface and/or the non-light-receiving surface; and power extraction electrodes formed on the light-receiving surface and the non-light-receiving surface. The solar cell is characterized in that the passivation layer includes an aluminum oxide film having a thickness of 40 nm or less. As a result of forming a aluminum oxide film having a predetermined thickness on the surface of the substrate, it is possible to achieve excellent passivation performance and excellent electrical contact between silicon and the electrode by merely firing the conductive paste, which is conventional technology. Furthermore, an annealing step, which has been necessary to achieve the passivation effects of the aluminum oxide film in the past, can be eliminated, thus dramatically reducing costs.

A bifacial solar cell includes a silicon substrate; an emitter layer; a plurality of first electrodes locally on the emitter layer; a first aluminum oxide layer on the emitter layer; a first silicon oxide layer between the first aluminum oxide layer and the emitter layer; a first anti-reflection layer on the first aluminum oxide layer; a back surface field layer on the silicon substrate; a second aluminum oxide layer on the silicon substrate; a second silicon oxide layer between the second aluminum oxide layer and the silicon substrate; a second anti-reflection layer on the second aluminum oxide layer; and a plurality of second electrodes respectively on the back surface field layers through the second anti-reflection layer, the second aluminum oxide layer and the second silicon oxide layer.