Patent Application
20170054045
The present invention relates to a method for packaging and the structure thereof, and particularly to a method for packaging a solar cell device and the structure thereof applicable to solar power generation and enabling adoption of lighter and cheaper substrate material and thus making the solar cell modules more competitive.
In order to satisfy the market demand of solar power generation, concentrative solar cell modules are developing in the direction of low cost, low carbon emission, and automation. Nonetheless, most manufacturers still use metal materials, for example, lighter aluminum plates, as the circuit substrates for solar cell arrays. The drawbacks of aluminum plates include more carbon emission during the fabrication process. In addition, because solar cell modules are disposed outdoors, the lifetime of substrates made of metal materials is not acceptable.
While using metal materials as the substrate according to the prior art, in order to extend the lifetime and avoid the safety problem of electric leakage, a complete insulating layer will be added on the substrate made of metal materials as protection. Then the circuit is disposed on the insulating layer. This structure requires a higher manufacturing cost. Besides, it cannot solve the problem of high carbon emission during the fabrication process of components.
Accordingly, in the field, glass is considered as the substrate material. According to the Taiwan Patent Number 1455327, a photovoltaic glass, a method for manufacturing the photovoltaic glass, and a solar cell module having the photovoltaic glass are disclosed. According to the invention, bumps selected from the group consisting of metal oxide, metal sulfide, metal telluride, metal selenide are formed on the glass substrate. By using the bumps formed on the glass substrate, the light with shorter wavelength illuminated into the glass initially can be converted to light with longer wavelength and absorbable by the photoelectric structure. In addition, according the Taiwan Patent Number 1313149, a circuit board module is disclosed. The structure according to the invention includes the stack of a plurality glass circuit boards. By taking advantage of identical thermal expansion coefficients, the influence of thermal stress can be controlled. Moreover, the Taiwan Patent Number 1323485 provides a structure having a semiconductor on an insulator. The structure comprises one or more regions formed by essentially single-crystal semiconductor layers, such as doped silicon, and connected to the supporting substrate formed by oxide glass or oxide glass ceramics. This is an application including glass substrates.
The present invention excludes the need of manufacturing the substrate using metal materials. Instead, the present invention provides a novel method for packaging solar cell device and the structure thereof for applying the advantages of glass to the field of solar power generation.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a structure of solar cell device, which uses glass materials or insulating high-polymer materials to manufacture the substrate for carrying solar cells and devices for related circuit structure. By using taking advantage of lightness, low costs, lower carbon footprint, and compatibility with the fabrication process according to the prior art of these materials, the challenges while applying a solar cell module, including weight, cost, and environmental protection, can be reduced, and hence increasing competitiveness in the market.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a structure of solar cell device, which requires no extra conductive wires by using substrates made of glass materials or insulating high-polymer materials. This succinct structure facilitates fabrication yield and lifetime in application.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a structure of solar cell device, which does not use massive metal materials as the substrate. Given that solar cell modules are mainly disposed outdoors, the structure is less influenced by moisture and thus slowing down the aging rate of hardware equipment.
Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a method for packaging solar cell device. After preparing substrate modules and solar cell modules, the two are connected. Thereby, it is not necessary to process a single item continuously and hence simplifying the process.
In order to achieve the objectives as described above, the present invention discloses a structure of solar cell device, which comprises a substrate formed by glass or insulating high polymer, an insulating layer, a plurality of conductive layers, and a plurality of solar cells. A plurality of conductive films are disposed on a surface of the substrate. The insulating layer is disposed on the substrate and comprises a plurality of holes located on the plurality of conductive films. The plurality of conductive layers are disposed in the plurality of holes. A bottom surface of the plurality of conductive layers is connected electrically with the plurality of conductive films. The plurality of solar cells are disposed on the insulating layer and connected electrically with the top surface of the plurality of conductive layer.
The method for packaging solar cell device comprises steps of: disposing a plurality of conductive films on a surface of a glass substrate or an insulating high-polymer substrate for forming a substrate module; disposing a plurality of conductive layers in a plurality of holes of an insulating layer, disposing a plurality of solar cells on the insulating layer, and connecting electrically the plurality of solar cells with a top surface of the plurality of conductive layers for forming a cell module; and connecting the cell module and the substrate module such that the cell module is disposed on the substrate module and a bottom surface of the plurality of conductive layers are connected electrically with the plurality of conductive films. The order of preparing the substrate module and the cell module can be arbitrary.
In order to make the structure and characteristics as well as the effectiveness of the present invention to be further understood and recognized, the detailed description of the present invention is provided as follows along with embodiments and accompanying figures.
Please refer to
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the adopted material for the substrate is glass. In the fabrication process of glass, 1.14 kilograms of carbon dioxide are emitted for each kilogram of the product, which is much less than 10.10 kilograms of carbon dioxide for each kilogram of aluminum material. Thereby, selecting glass as the substrate material can apparently reduce the carbon footprint of solar cell modules. In addition, the density of glass is 2.5 grams per cubic centimeters, which is smaller than the density of aluminum, 2.71 grams per cubic centimeters. Hence, the total weight of a solar cell module can be reduced. In other words, under a given volume, the load of the support structure for solar cell module can be reduced and thereby lowering the cost for hardware disposition. Moreover, glass has an excellent insulating property, eliminating the necessity of further processing the substrate for improving its insulating property and thus enhancing the competitive advantage of the product. Besides, the glass can be normal glass or fortified glass.
According another preferred embodiment of the present invention, an insulating high-polymer substrate formed by insulating high-polymer materials can be adopted. Thanks to its characteristics of plastics, it is superior to an aluminum substrate in terms of the weight per unit volume, the manufacturing cost, and the insulating property. Thereby, it can be used as another material for improving the competitive advantage of products.
The plurality of conductive films 2 for circuits are disposed on the glass surface 10 of the glass substrate 1. They are isolated from one another and are used for connecting different solar cells. The plurality of conductive films 2 can be disposed on the glass surface through physical or chemical methods. Besides, depending on the requirement of connecting the cells in series, the sizes can be adjusted based on
The material of the insulating layer 3 can be selected from the insulating materials such as aluminum oxide (Al2O3) or aluminum nitride (AlN) and be in the form of a ceramic substrate suitable for high-temperature and high-humidity environments. In addition, the ceramic substrate also has the characteristics of high thermal conductivity, high thermal endurance, high erosion and wear resistance, anti-ultraviolet light, and anti-yellowing. The insulating layer 3 can be a single large-area ceramic substrate or a plurality of small-area ceramic substrates. According to the present preferred embodiment, a plurality of small-area ceramic substrates are adopted to form the insulating layer 3. As shown in the figures, each ceramic substrate has two holes 30, respectively. The conductive layer 4 fills the holes 30, respectively, for conducting the positive and negative electrodes.
Furthermore, please refer to the cross-sectional view shown in
In other words, according to the preferred embodiment as described above, the insulating layer 3 is disposed on the glass substrate 1. The insulating layer 3 comprises multiple holes 30 located on the conductive film 2. These holes 30 can further correspond to different conductive films 2. According to the present invention, these holes 30 are used for connecting electrically the bottom surface of the conductive layer 4 and the conductive film 2 as well as connecting electrically the top surface of the conductive layer 2 with the solar cell 5. The method for connecting different conductive films 2, conductive layers 4, and solar cells 5 can be done correspondingly according to the general serial connection of electricity.
The basic structure of the conductive layer 4 includes the holes 30 filled with the insulating layer 3 such that the top and bottom surfaces thereof can be connected electrically with other devices. Compared with eh preferred embodiment of
Based on the above description, please refer to
Step S1: Disposing a plurality of conductive films on a glass surface of a glass substrate for forming a substrate module;
Step S2: Disposing a plurality of conductive layers in a plurality of holes of an insulating layer, disposing a plurality of solar cells on the insulating layer, and connecting electrically the plurality of solar cells with a top surface of the plurality of conductive layers for forming a cell module; and
Step S3: Connecting the cell module and the substrate module such that the cell module is disposed on the substrate module and a bottom surface of the plurality of conductive layers are connected electrically with the plurality of conductive films.
In the above steps, with reference to
As described in the above structure, the glass substrate can be replaced by other insulating materials, for example, an insulating high-polymer substrate. The insulating layer can be a ceramic substrate. Besides, the conductive layer and the conductive film can adopt conductive materials such as silver, gold, copper, aluminum, or tin.
To sum up, the present invention discloses in detail a method for packaging solar cell device and the structure thereof. By combining the glass substrate having the circuit and the ceramic substrate having the holes and transferring the electrodes from the front surface to the back surface using the ceramic substrate having the holes, a reliable packaging architecture is provided. The packaging architecture according to the present invention can eliminate the usage of connecting conductive wires and use glass as the substrate appropriately. Hence, the present invention is endowed with the advantages of low carbon emission, low cost, and high weather endurance.
Accordingly, the present invention conforms to the legal requirements owing to its novelty, nonobviousness, and utility. However, the foregoing description is only embodiments of the present invention, not used to limit the scope and range of the present invention. Those equivalent changes or modifications made according to the shape, structure, feature, or spirit described in the claims of the present invention are included in the appended claims of the present invention.
