A laminate including a supporting member which is light transmissive; a supported substrate which is supported by the supporting member; an adhesive layer which is provided on a surface of the supported substrate on which surface the supported substrate is supported by the supporting member; and a release layer, which (i) is provided between the supporting member and the supported substrate and (ii) contains a polymer including, in a repeating unit, a structure having a light absorption property, a property of the polymer being changed when the polymer absorbs light irradiated via the supporting member.

A method for forming a wet-etchable, sacrificial lift-off layer or layers compatible with high temperature processing, a sacrificial layer, defined as consisting of a single film of one material or multiple films of multiple materials, that can tolerate high temperatures, is deposited on a substrate, called the original substrate, by sputtering or another suitable technique (e.g. evaporation, pulsed laser deposition, wet chemistry, etc.). Intermediate steps result in a lift-off layer attached to the lift-off substrate, that allow for separating the product from the original substrate.

For manufacturing a radiation window for an X-ray measurement apparatus, an etch stop layer is first produced on a polished surface of a carrier. A thin film deposition technique is used to produce a boron carbide layer on an opposite side of the etch stop layer than the carrier. The combined structure including the carrier, the etch stop layer, and the boron carbide layer is attached to a region around an opening in a support structure with the boron carbide layer facing the support structure. The middle area of carrier is etched away, leaving an additional support structure.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a double-sided heterojunction solar cell module. The solar cell includes a frontside glass cover, a backside glass cover situated below the frontside glass cover, and a number of solar cells situated between the frontside glass cover and the backside glass cover. Each solar cell includes a semiconductor multilayer structure situated below the frontside glass cover, including: a frontside electrode grid, a first layer of heavily doped amorphous Si (a-Si) situated below the frontside electrode, a layer of lightly doped crystalline-Si (c-Si) situated below the first layer of heavily doped a-Si, and a layer of heavily doped c-Si situated below the lightly doped c-Si layer. The solar cell also includes a second layer of heavily doped a-Si situated below the multilayer structure; and a backside electrode situated below the second layer of heavily doped a-Si.

Laser processing schemes are disclosed for producing various types of hetero-junction and homo-junction solar cells. The methods include base and emitter contact opening, selective doping, and metal ablation. Also, laser processing schemes are disclosed that are suitable for selective amorphous silicon ablation and selective doping for hetero-junction solar cells. These laser processing techniques may be applied to semiconductor substrates, including crystalline silicon substrates, and further including crystalline silicon substrates which are manufactured either through wire saw wafering methods or via epitaxial deposition processes, that are either planar or textured/three-dimensional. These techniques are highly suited to crystalline semiconductor, including crystalline silicon.

A method for forming a back contact on an absorber layer in a photovoltaic device includes forming a two dimensional material on a first substrate. An absorber layer including CuZnSnS(Se) (CZTSSe) is grown over the first substrate on the two dimensional material. A buffer layer is grown on the absorber layer on a side opposite the two dimensional material. The absorber layer is exfoliated from the two dimensional material to remove the first substrate from a backside of the absorber layer opposite the buffer layer. A back contact is deposited on the absorber layer.

A solar cell includes a metal layer and a chalcopyrite compound semiconductor layer in this order on a polyimide film. A manufacturing method according to the present invention includes the following steps in the order: cast applying a polyimide precursor solution onto a support base containing an alkali metal; imidizing the polyimide precursor by heating to form a stacked body including a polyimide film on the support base; forming a metal layer on the polyimide film of the stacked body; and forming a chalcopyrite compound semiconductor layer on the metal layer.

A back contact back junction thin-film solar cell is formed on a thin-film semiconductor solar cell. Preferably the thin film semiconductor material comprises crystalline silicon. Base regions, emitter regions, and front surface field regions are formed through ion implantation and annealing processes.

A method for forming a back contact on an absorber layer in a photovoltaic device includes forming a two dimensional material on a first substrate. An absorber layer including CuZnSnS(Se) (CZTSSe) is grown over the first substrate on the two dimensional material. A buffer layer is grown on the absorber layer on a side opposite the two dimensional material. The absorber layer is exfoliated from the two dimensional material to remove the first substrate from a backside of the absorber layer opposite the buffer layer. A back contact is deposited on the absorber layer.

A method of transferring a thin film includes: providing a first element structure, wherein the first element structure includes a first substrate and a functional film layer formed on the first substrate; completely removing the first substrate, wherein steps of the completely removing the first substrate includes: conducting an etching step to erode the first substrate, and conducting a grinding step to planarize the eroded first substrate; and after completely removing the first substrate, attaching the functional film layer on a second substrate to form a second element structure.