Newsouth Innovations Pty Limited

Suntech Power International Ltd.

Alison Maree Wenham

Stuart Ross Wenham

Ly Mai

Brett Jason Hallam

Catherine Emily Chan

Chee Mun Chong

Matthew Bruce Edwards

Pei Hsuan Lu

Phillip George Hamer

Adeline Sugianto

Jing Ji

Lihui Song

GuangQi Xu

Alison Joan Lennon

Budi Tjahjono

Valantis Vais

Ziv Hameiri

Guang Qi Xu

Li Hui Song

Martin Andrew Green

Zhengrong Shi

Xi Wang

Jingnan Tong

Ji Jing Jia

Shi Zhengrong

Pei-Hsuan Lu

Guangqi Xu

Jing Jia Ji

A monolithically integrated system of silicon solar cells. A system having a silicon substrate and a plurality of solar cells formed on the silicon substrate. Each solar cell can have an emitter portion and a base portion. The system can also have a plurality of intermediate regions, each intermediate region having a polarity and electrically separating at least two portions of adjacent solar cells from one another such that the polarity of the intermediate region is opposite to a polarity of at least one of the separated portions of the adjacent solar cells.

Monolithically integrated solar cell system

A surface region of a semiconductor material on a surface of a semiconductor device is doped during its manufacture, by coating the surface region of the semiconductor material with a dielectric material surface layer and locally heating the surface of the semiconductor material in an area to be doped to locally melt the semiconductor material with the melting being performed in the presence of a dopant source. The heating is performed in a controlled manner such that a region of the surface of the semiconductor material in the area to be doped is maintained in a molten state without refreezing for a period of time greater than one microsecond and the dopant from the dopant source is absorbed into the molten semiconductor. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor material structure in which a junction is formed and may incorporate a multi-layer anti-reflection coating. The anti-reflection coating is located on a light receiving surface of the semiconductor material structure and comprises a thin layer of thermal expansion mismatch correction material having a thermal expansion coefficient less than or equal to that of the semiconductor material, to provide thermal expansion coefficient mismatch correction. An anti-reflection layer is provided having a refractive index and thickness selected to match the semiconductor material structure so as to give good overall antireflection properties to the solar cell.

Photovoltaic device structure and method

A silicon device, has a plurality of crystalline silicon regions. One crystalline silicon region is a doped crystalline silicon region. Deactivating some or all of the dopant atoms in the doped crystalline silicon region is achieved by introducing hydrogen atoms into the doped 5 crystalline silicon region, whereby the hydrogen coulombicly bonds with some or all of the dopant atoms to deactivate the respective dopant atoms. Deactivated dopant atoms may be reactivated by heating and illuminating the doped crystalline silicon region to break at least some of the dopant-hydrogen bonds while maintaining conditions to create a high concentration of neutral hydrogen atoms whereby 10 some of the hydrogen atoms diffuse from the doped crystalline silicon region without rebinding to the dopant atoms.

High concentration doping in silicon

A method of hydrogenation of a silicon photovoltaic junction device is provided, the silicon photovoltaic junction device comprising p-type silicon semiconductor material and n-type silicon semiconductor material forming at least one p-n junction. The method comprises:

Advanced hydrogenation of silicon solar cells

A method is provided for the processing of a device having a crystalline silicon region containing an internal hydrogen source. The method comprises: i) applying encapsulating material to each of the front and rear surfaces of the device to form a lamination; ii) applying pressure to the lamination and heating the lamination to bond the encapsulating material to the device; and iii) cooling the device, where the heating step or cooling step or both are completed under illumination.

Thermal processing in silicon

A solar cell has a metal contact formed to electrically contact a surface of semiconductor material forming a photovoltaic junction. The solar cell includes a surface region or regions of heavily doped material and the contact comprises a contact metallisation formed over the heavily doped regions to make contact thereto. Surface keying features are located in the semiconductor material into which the metallisation extends to assist in attachment of the metallisation to the semiconductor material.

Metal adhesion

A method of hydrogenation of a silicon photovoltaic junction device is provided, the silicon photovoltaic junction device comprising p-type silicon semiconductor material and n-type silicon semiconductor material forming at least one p-n junction. The method comprises: i) ensuring that any silicon surface phosphorus diffused layers through which hydrogen must diffuse have peak doping concentrations of 1&#xd7;10atoms/cmor less and silicon surface boron diffused layers through which hydrogen must diffuse have peak doping concentrations of 1&#xd7;10atoms/cmor less; ii) providing one or more hydrogen sources accessible by each surface of the device; and iii) heating the device, or a local region of the device to at least 40&#xb0; C. while simultaneously illuminating at least some and/or advantageously all of the device with at least one light source whereby the cumulative power of all the incident photons with sufficient energy to generate electron hole pairs within the silicon (in other words photons with energy levels above the bandgap of silicon of 1.12 eV) is at least 20 mW/cm.

A method of forming an oxide layer on an exposed surface of a semiconductor device which contains a p-n junction is disclosed, the method comprising: immersing the exposed surface of the semiconductor device in an electrolyte; producing an electric field in the semiconductor device such that the p-n junction is forward-biased and the exposed surface is anodic; and electrochemically oxidizing the exposed surface to form an oxide layer.

Passivation scheme for solar cells

A method of depositing metal on an exposed surface of a p-type semiconductor region of a semiconductor device comprising a p-n junction is disclosed, the method comprising: immersing the exposed surface of the p-type semiconductor region on which the metal is to be deposited in a solution of metal ions; producing an electric field in the semiconductor device such that the p-n junction is forward biased; electrochemically depositing the metal on the exposed surface of the p-type semiconductor region of the semiconductor device by reduction of metal ions in the solution.

Metal contact scheme for solar cells

Method of forming doped regions in a photovoltaic device

A method of photoplating a metal contact onto a surface of a cathode of a photovoltaic device is provided using light induced plating technique. The method comprises: a) immersing the photovoltaic device in a solution of metal ions, where the metal ions are a species which is to be plated onto the surface of the cathode of the photovoltaic device; and b) illuminating the photovoltaic device, using a light source of time varying intensity. This results in nett plating which is faster in a direction normal to the surface of the cathode than in a direction in a plane of the surface of the cathode.

Photoplating of metal electrodes for solar cells

Growing community of inventors

Cronulla, Australia

Alison Maree Wenham