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Solar Thin Film Photovoltaics
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Patent US10374108
Issued 2019-08-06
Photovoltaic Device, Photovoltaic Module, And Method For Fabricating The Photovoltaic Device
A photovoltaic device includes: a silicon substrate having a front surface having a texture; and an amorphous silicon layer having an uneven surface corresponding to the texture, wherein the amorphous silicon layer is amorphous in peak portions and slope portions extending between the peak portions and valley portions of the uneven surface, and has crystalline regions which grow, in a pillar manner, approximately perpendicularly from a substrate surface of the silicon substrate in the valley portions, the crystalline regions being discretely present along upper ends of the valley portions, the upper ends being opposite lower ends of the valley portions, the lower ends being in contact with the silicon substrate, wherein coverage of the crystalline regions in the valley portions is higher than coverage of amorphous regions in the valley portions.
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- 1. A photovoltaic device, comprising:
a silicon substrate having a first major surface having a texture in which a plurality of pyramids are arrayed two-dimensionally; and a first amorphous silicon layer on the first major surface of the silicon substrate, the first amorphous silicon layer having an uneven surface corresponding to the texture, wherein: the first amorphous silicon layer:
is amorphous in peak portions and slope portions extending between the peak portions and valley portions of the uneven surface; and
has crystalline regions which grow, in a pillar manner, approximately perpendicularly from a substrate surface of the silicon substrate in the valley portions of the uneven surface, the crystalline regions being discretely present along upper ends of the valley portions, the upper ends being opposite lower ends of the valley portions, the lower ends being in contact with the silicon substrate, and
in a cross-sectional view of the first amorphous silicon layer, coverage of the crystalline regions in the valley portions is higher than coverage of amorphous regions in the valley portions.
