Patent Grant
9899546
This generally relates to the electrode design for photovoltaic structures. More specifically, this disclosure is related to photovoltaic structures having specially designed electrodes for housing conductive paste.
“Solar cell” or “cell” is a photovoltaic structure capable of converting light into electricity. A cell may have any size and any shape, and may be created from a variety of materials. For example, a solar cell may be a photovoltaic structure fabricated on a silicon wafer or one or more thin films on a substrate material (e.g., glass, plastic, or any other material capable of supporting the photovoltaic structure), or a combination thereof.
A “solar cell strip,” “photovoltaic strip,” or “strip” is a portion or segment of a photovoltaic structure, such as a solar cell. A solar cell may be divided into a number of strips. A strip may have any shape and any size. The width and length of a strip may be the same or different from each other. Strips may be formed by further dividing a previously divided strip.
A “cascade” is a physical arrangement of solar cells or strips that are electrically coupled via electrodes on or near their edges. There are many ways to physically connect adjacent photovoltaic structures. One way is to physically overlap them at or near the edges (e.g., one edge on the positive side and another edge on the negative side) of adjacent structures. This overlapping process is sometimes referred to as “shingling.” Two or more cascading photovoltaic structures or strips can be referred to as a “cascaded string,” or more simply as a string.
“Finger lines,” “finger electrodes,” and “fingers” refer to elongated, electrically conductive (e.g., metallic) electrodes of a photovoltaic structure for collecting carriers.
A “busbar,” “bus line,” or “bus electrode” refers to an elongated, electrically conductive (e.g., metallic) electrode of a photovoltaic structure for aggregating current collected by two or more finger lines. A busbar is usually wider than a finger line, and can be deposited or otherwise positioned anywhere on or within the photovoltaic structure. A single photovoltaic structure may have one or more busbars.
A “photovoltaic structure” can refer to a solar cell, a segment, or solar cell strip. A photovoltaic structure is not limited to a device fabricated by a particular method. For example, a photovoltaic structure can be a crystalline silicon-based solar cell, a thin film solar cell, an amorphous silicon-based solar cell, a poly-crystalline silicon-based solar cell, or a strip thereof.
Advances in photovoltaic technology, which is used to make solar panels, have helped solar energy gain mass appeal among those wishing to reduce their carbon footprint and decrease their monthly energy costs. However, the panels are typically fabricated manually, which is a time-consuming and error-prone process. This makes it costly to mass-produce reliable solar panels.
Solar panels typically include one or more strings of complete solar cells. Adjacent solar cells in a string may overlap one another in a cascading arrangement. For example, continuous strings of solar cells that form a solar panel are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/510,008, filed Oct. 8, 2014 and entitled “Module Fabrication of Solar Cells with Low Resistivity Electrodes,” the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Producing solar panels with a cascaded cell arrangement can reduce the resistance due to inter-connections between the strips, and can increase the number of solar cells that can fit into a solar panel.
Fabrications of such cascaded panels can involve overlapping edges of adjacent cells in such a way that the electrodes (busbars) on opposite sides of the overlapped cells are in contact to establish an electrical connection. This process is repeated for a number of successive cells until one string of cascaded cells is created. A number of strings are then coupled to each other (either in series or in parallel) and placed in a protective frame. To further reduce internal resistance of the entire panel and to ensure that the manufactured panel is compatible with conventional panels, one form of the cascaded panel (as described in the aforementioned patent application) can include a series of solar cell strips created by dividing complete solar cells into smaller pieces (i.e., the strips). These smaller strips can then be cascaded to form a string. Arranging strips in a cascaded manner requires proper alignment of the strips. Moreover, to ensure proper electrical coupling, conductive paste can be deposited onto the busbars of the strips before the strips are edge-overlapped.
One embodiment of the present invention provides an electrode grid positioned at least on a first surface of a photovoltaic structure. The electrode grid can include a number of finger lines and an edge busbar positioned at an edge of the photovoltaic structure. The edge busbar can include one or more paste-alignment structures configured to facilitate confinement of conductive paste used for bonding the edge busbar to an opposite edge busbar of an adjacent photovoltaic structure.
In a variation on this embodiment, the paste-alignment structures can include one or more alignment pads.
In a further variation, a respective alignment pad can be located at an intersection between a finger line and the edge busbar.
In a further variation, a respective alignment pad can include a plurality of trenches.
In a further variation, the trenches include areas that are absent of conductive material that forms the edge busbar, and the trenches can be formed in a same fabrication process that forms the edge busbar.
In a further variation, forming the trenches may involve exposing dry film resist via a patterned mask which defines the edge busbar and locations and sizes of the trenches.
In a further variation, the trenches can be formed by partially etching the edge busbar at predetermined locations.
In a further variation, the trenches can be aligned in a direction parallel to the edge busbar.
In a further variation, a respective trench can have a width between 30 and 200 microns.
In a variation on this embodiment, the paste-alignment structures can include a channel running a length of the edge busbar.
In a variation on this embodiment, the edge busbar can include a Cu layer formed using an electroplating process.
In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same figure elements.
The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the embodiments, and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.
Overview
Embodiments of the present invention can provide a photovoltaic structure that can include specially designed electrodes for housing conductive paste. More specifically, a busbar located on the top surface of a photovoltaic structure can include, at specified locations, trenches that can facilitate confinements of the conductive paste to prevent paste overflow. Alternatively, the busbar may include an internal channel running the length of the busbar for housing the conductive paste.
Solar Panel Based on Cascaded Strips
As described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/563,867, a solar panel can have multiple (e.g., 3) strings, each string including cascaded strips, connected in parallel. Such a multiple-parallel-string panel configuration provides the same output voltage with a reduced internal resistance. In general, a cell can be divided into n strips, and a panel can contain n strings. Each string can have the same number of strips as the number of regular photovoltaic structures in a conventional single-string panel. Such a configuration can ensure that each string outputs approximately the same voltage as a conventional panel. The n strings can then be connected in parallel to form a panel. As a result, the panel's voltage output can be the same as that of the conventional single-string panel, while the panel's total internal resistance can be 1/n of the resistance of a string. Therefore, in general, a greater n can lead to a lower total internal resistance, and hence more power extracted from the panel. However, a tradeoff is that as n increases, the number of connections required to inter-connect the strings also increases, which increases the amount of contact resistance. Also, the greater n is, the more strips a single cell needs to be divided into, which increases the associated production cost and decreases overall reliability due to the larger number of strips used in a single panel.
Another consideration in determining n is the contact resistance between the electrode and the photovoltaic structure on which the electrode is formed. The greater this contact resistance is, the greater n might need to be to effectively reduce the panel's overall internal resistance. Therefore, the type of electrode can dictate the number of strips. For example, conventional silver-paste or aluminum-based electrode typically cannot produce ideal resistance between the electrode and underlying photovoltaic structure. As a result, such electrodes may require n to be greater than 4. In some embodiments of the present invention, the electrodes, including both the busbars and finger lines, can be fabricated using a combination of physical vapor deposition (PVD) and electroplating of copper as an electrode material. The resulting copper electrode can exhibit lower resistance than an aluminum or screen-printed-silver-paste electrode. Consequently, a smaller n can be used to attain the benefit of reduced panel internal resistance. In some embodiments, n can be selected to be three, which is less than the n value generally needed for cells with silver-paste electrodes or other types of electrodes. Correspondingly, two grooves can be scribed on a single cell to allow the cell to be divided into three strips.
In addition to lower contact resistance, electro-plated copper electrodes can also offer better tolerance to micro cracks, which may occur during a cleaving process. Such micro cracks might adversely impact silver-paste-electrode cells. Plated-copper electrode, on the other hand, can preserve the conductivity across the cell surface even if there are micro cracks in the photovoltaic structure. The copper electrode's higher tolerance for micro cracks can allow one to use thinner silicon wafers to manufacture cells. As a result, the grooves to be scribed on a cell can be shallower than the grooves scribed on a thicker wafer, which in turn can help increase the throughput of the scribing process. More details on using copper plating to form low-resistance electrodes on a photovoltaic structure are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/220,532, entitled “SOLAR CELL WITH ELECTROPLATED GRID,” filed Aug. 29, 2011, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In the examples shown in
To form a cascaded string, cells or strips (e.g., as a result of a scribing-and-cleaving process applied to a regular square cell) can be cascaded with their edges overlapped.
Busbars with Alignment Pads
When forming a solar panel, adjacent strips may be bonded together via edge busbars. Such bonding can be important to ensure that the electrical connections are well maintained when the solar panel is put into service. One option for bonding the metallic busbars can include soldering. For example, the surface of the edge busbars may be coated with a thin layer of Sn. During a subsequent lamination process, heat and pressure can be applied to cure sealant material between photovoltaic structures and the covers. The same heat and pressure can also solder together the edge busbars that are in contact, such as edge busbars 208 and 210. However, the rigid bonding between the soldered contacts may lead to cracking of the thin strips. Moreover, when in service solar panels often experience many temperature cycles, and the thermal mismatch between the metal and the semiconductor may create structural stress that can lead to fracturing.
To reduce the thermal or mechanical stress, it can be preferable to use a bonding mechanism that is sufficiently flexible and can withstand many temperature cycles. One way to do so is to bond the strips using flexible adhesive that is electrically conductive. For example, adhesive (or paste) can be applied on the surface of top edge busbar 208 of strip 202 (shown in
When applying paste to the busbars, one needs to be concerned with the problem of paste overflow, especially for less viscous paste material. In some embodiments, the conductive paste can include metallic particles suspended in a resin, and the volume fraction of the metallic particles can be between 50 and 90%. The viscosity of such conductive paste can be around 20 Pa·s (Pascal. second), which is relatively small. For such paste, overflow can occur when a busbar having paste on its surface is stacked against another busbar or when the paste is thermally cured. When the conductive paste expands beyond the busbar, it may come into contact with the strip edge, leading to the shunting of the strip. Even if the overflowing paste does not reach the strip edge but flows toward the other side, it can still be problematic because such overflowing paste can cause additional shading to the strip surface.
One approach to prevent paste overflow is to apply a smaller amount of paste. For example, droplets of paste that are much smaller compared to the busbar dimension may have a smaller chance of overflowing. However, these smaller droplets may not be able to provide the reliable mechanical bonding and sufficient electrical conductivity that are required by high performance solar panels. During the manufacturing of high performance panels, a sufficient amount of paste, which can be in the form of droplets or strands, may be applied to each busbar, which can increase the possibility of paste overflow. On one hand, after the application of the paste, the strips may be transferred to other workstations for further processing, which can include cleaving or stacking up. While being transferred, the strips can be carried by a conveyor or picked up by a robotic arm. Such movements of the strips may cause the conductive paste to flow or shift locations. On the other hand, if the paste-dispensing machine is not perfectly aligned to the center of the busbar, the paste may be deposited off center onto the busbar. Larger droplets or wider strands can lead to a higher possibility of paste overflow in both cases.
In some embodiments of the present invention, the busbars can be designed to include paste-confinement features to facilitate the confinement of the conductive paste, thus reducing the possibility of paste overflow. There are various embodiments of the paste-confinement features. In some embodiments, the confinement of the paste can be achieved by increasing the area of contact, and hence the drag force, between the paste droplets or strands and the busbar. To do so, additional topography, such as trenches or valleys, can be formed on the busbar.
In the example shown in
In some embodiments, the length of the trenches can be between 30 and 200 microns. Typical finger lines can be between 30 and 50 microns wide, and typical busbars can be between 800 and 1500 microns wide. Accordingly, the length of the trenches can often be chosen to be larger than the finger width but smaller than the busbar width. In general, the size of the alignment pad can be comparable to the size of a paste droplet, whose diameter can be between 300 and 400 microns. In some embodiments, an alignment pad can be created at each busbar-finger intersection. In other embodiments, the alignment pads can be formed at other busbar locations, and have equal or variable spacing. The number of alignments pads on a busbar can be determined by the number of paste droplets that will be subsequently deposited onto the busbar. In some embodiments, a busbar may include between 50 and 80 alignment pads.
Electrode grid 312 can include one or more layers of conductive material, which can include metallic material or non-metallic conductive material. In some embodiments, grid 312 can include an electroplated Cu layer. In further embodiments, grid 312 can additionally include one or more adhesive metallic layers for improving adhesion between the electroplated Cu layer and TCO layer 314. The adhesive layers can be deposited on the surface of TCO layer 314 using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique. Materials used to form the adhesive layers include, but are not limited to: Ti, titanium nitride (TiNx), titanium tungsten (TiWx), titanium silicide (TiSix), titanium silicon nitride (TiSiN), Ta, tantalum nitride (TaNx), tantalum silicon nitride (TaSiNx), nickel vanadium (NiV), tungsten nitride (WNx), Co, W, Cr, Mo, Ni, and their combinations. In some embodiments, the thickness of grid 312 can be between 10 and 50 microns.
One can see from
Various methods can be used to create the trenches. In some embodiments, the trenches can be created concurrently with the formation of grid 312. More specifically, the formation of grid 312 often can involve a patterned mask, and the trenches can be a built-in feature of the patterned mask. Therefore, in some embodiments, once grid 312 is formed, it can be formed with trenches located at desired locations. For example, before forming the grid (which can include an electroplated Cu layer and multiple metallic adhesive layers), a patterned mask can be deposited on the TCO layer. The patterned mask can define the grid by creating windows at the desired locations. During the electroplating process, metal ions can only be deposited onto the exposed TCO defined by the windows, forming busbars and finger lines of the grid. The trenches can be similarly defined by adding masking material, which can include photoresist or SiO2, at desired locations inside the window designed for the busbar. Consequently, when grid 312 is formed, the added masking material can prevent deposition of the metal, thus creating trenches inside the busbar. By incorporating patterns for forming the trenches in the same mask that defines the grid, this approach can form alignment pads without any additional fabrication procedures. In addition to PVD and electroplating, the grid can also be formed using a standard screen printing technique. In such a case, the trenches can be part of the screen printing pattern.
For the mask-based metal-deposition process, the resolution of the trenches can be limited by the resolution of the mask. In some embodiments, the patterned mask can be formed by exposing dry film resist to ultraviolet light, which can create sub-micron features. In some embodiments, the width of the trenches, such as trenches 322 and 324, can be between 30 and 200 microns. Similarly, the spacing between the trenches, which can equal the width of conductive strip 326, can also be between 30 and 200 microns. Depending on the thickness of grid 312, the width of conductive strip 326 may be carefully controlled to ensure that the aspect ratio of conductive strip 326 is not too large to avoid possible collapse of conductive strip 326. In some embodiments, the height-to-width ratio of conductive strip 326 is less than 2.
In addition to preventing the collapse of metal columns, small height-to-width ratio for the conductive strips can also reduce the series resistance of the grid. Collected current from the photovoltaic structure may flow through the busbar area. If the conductive strips situated between trenches are too thin, the series resistance of the busbar may be significantly increased. In general, there can be tradeoff between the busbar's series resistance and the ability of the busbar to capture the conductive paste. Wider trenches, and hence thinner conductive strips, can trap more paste, but may result in increased busbar resistance. This issue may be addressed by choosing a paste with a particular density of conductive particles to compensate for the loss of conductive material due to trenches. Stated differently, if the density of conductive particles is high enough, the paste filling the gaps (e.g., gap 324) may provide an electrical connectivity that is comparable to the one provided by the conductive strips (e.g., strip 326).
Another advantage provided by the trench configuration shown in
Other trench configurations are also possible.
Moreover, other than having all trenches parallel to each other, it is also possible to use a number of intersected trenches to form an alignment pad. The advantage of having intersected trenches can be that it can significantly increase the contact area between the busbar and the conductive paste, thus reducing the possibility of paste overflow.
In addition to straight trenches, one may form the alignment pads using circular trenches.
In the example shown in
It has been assumed so far that the trenches are formed at the same time the metal busbar is formed, using the same mask. As a result, the trenches are areas that are absent of metal within the busbar. In practice, it is also possible to form additional trenches on the busbars without modifying the existing mask. For example, laser or mechanical scribing can be used to create trenches on existing busbars. Such created trenches may or may not go through the busbar metal layer.
In addition to trenches, other types of surface structure can also be formed to prevent paste overflow. In some embodiments, an alignment pad can include a number of indentations arranged into a two-dimensional array.
The trenches shown in
In most automated systems that manufacture solar panels, a conveyor can be used to transport photovoltaic structures between workstations, which can include but are not limited to: scribing, paste application, cleaving, testing, string lay-up, and annealing. To prevent curing of the conductive paste by the laser beam used for scribing, it can be preferred that the conductive paste be applied after the laser-scribing process. Moreover, it can desirable to perform laser scribing on the side of the base layer opposite to the emitter to prevent possible damages cause by the laser beam to the base-to-emitter junction. If the photovoltaic structure includes a surface-field layer, it can be desirable to apply the laser beam on the side of the surface-field layer. In such scenarios, it is easier to ensure that a groove generated by the laser beam does not penetrate the base layer to reach the base-to-emitter interface. To accommodate the scribing operation, the photovoltaic structures can be placed on the conveyors with the top-facing side being the side of the surface-field layer. Consequently, when conductive paste is applied, it can be applied to busbars located at the surface-field layer side of the photovoltaic structures.
In some embodiments, only the busbars located on the surface-field layer side can include alignment pads, whereas busbars located on the opposite side (the emitter side) can remain unchanged, having a continuous and smooth surface. Forming alignment pads on one side of the photovoltaic structure can be easier than forming them on both sides, especially in scenarios where additional etching may be needed. On the other hand, in scenarios where alignment pads are formed in the same step when the busbars are formed, forming alignment pads on both sides does not require additional fabrication steps. Forming alignment pads on both sides of the photovoltaic structures can increase drag force to the paste when the busbars are stacked against one another, thus further decreasing the possibility of paste overflow.
Busbars with Built-in Channels
In addition to forming alignment pads on the busbars, other forms of paste-confinement mechanism can also be possible. In some embodiments, a channel that runs the length of the busbar can be formed in order to house the deposited conductive paste.
In addition to forming recessed channels on both edge busbars of a photovoltaic structure, in some embodiments, the recessed channel can be formed on only one of the edge busbars. For example, the recessed channel can be formed on the edge busbar located on the surface-field layer side of the photovoltaic structure, given that the conductive paste is typically deposited onto this side.
In some embodiments, a recessed channel can be combined with trenches in order to further increase the paste-confinement capability of the busbar.
In some embodiments, instead of a channel that runs the entire length of the busbar, a busbar may include multiple shallow grooves along the busbar for housing the conductive paste.
In general, embodiments of the present invention provide various solutions for confining conductive paste deposited onto a busbar. By adding topographical structures on the otherwise smooth surface of the busbar, one can increase the drag force between the busbar metal and the conductive paste, thus reducing the paste overflow possibility. In addition, recessed spaces (in the form of channels or grooves) can be created on the busbar surface to house the deposited conductive paste. These additional structures can be formed in the same process that forms the busbar, or they can be formed using a separate process. The busbar structures shown in
For example, if the topographical structure includes trenches, the number and dimension of the trenches can be the same or different than the ones shown in
The foregoing descriptions of various embodiments have been presented only for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the forms disclosed. Accordingly, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. Additionally, the above disclosure is not intended to limit the present invention.
This claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/088,509, entitled “SYSTEM, METHOD, AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATIC MANUFACTURING OF SOLAR PANELS,” filed Dec. 5, 2014; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/143,694, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRECISION AUTOMATION OF MANUFACTURING SOLAR PANELS,” filed Apr. 6, 2015; the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes. This is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/563,867, entitled “HIGH EFFICIENCY SOLAR PANEL,” filed Dec. 8, 2014; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/510,008, entitled “MODULE FABRICATION OF SOLAR CELLS WITH LOW RESISTIVITY ELECTRODES,” filed Oct. 8, 2014; the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.
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