Kanegafuchi Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Kanegafuchi Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.

Nishimura, Kunio

Nakayama, Takehisa

Tsuge, Kazunori

Tawada, Yoshihisa

Kazunori Tsuge

Yoshihisa Tawada

Yoshihiro Hamakawa

Masanobu Izumina

Hideo Yamagishi

Kenji Kobayashi

Masataka Kondo

Akihiko Hiroe

Kunio Nishimura

Minori Yamaguchi

Hitoshi Nishio

Keizo Asaoka

Keiko Miki

Takehisa Nakayama

Ken Shiozaki

Toshihito Endo

Akira Ohnishi

Shinji Kuwamura

Keizou Asaoka

William A Nevin

Takeo Okamoto

A flexible photovoltaic device includes a flexible substrate and a photovoltaic device body. The flexible substrate is a metal foil or film provided with an electric insulating layer of a material having an electric conductivity of not more than 10.sup.-7 (.OMEGA..cm.).sup.-1 at the time of light impinging and selected from a heat resistant polymer, a metal oxide, a crystalline or amorphous silicon compound and an organometallic compound.

Flexible photovoltaic device

Amorphous semiconductor thin film is exposed to an atmosphere of hydrogen radical during or after the formation of thin film, or is subject to light irradiation having a density of not less than 10 W/cm.sup.2 at a wavelength of 300 to 700 nm during the formation of the thin film. The obtained thin film has improved, i.e. small, photo deterioration. The semiconductor device using the above thin film is preferably applied to solar cells or thin film transistors.

Amorphous semiconductor, amorphous semiconductor device using hydrogen

A flexible photovoltaic device includes a flexible substrate and a photovoltaic device body. The flexible substrate is a metal foil or film provided with an electric insulating layer of a material having an electric conductivity of not more than 10.sup.-7 (.OMEGA..multidot.cm.).sup.-1 at the time of light impinging and selected from a heat resistant polymer, a metal oxide, a crystalline or amorphous silicon compound and an organometallic compound.

A semiconductor device producing method wherein a patterned transparent electrode, a patterned amorphous silicon semiconductor layer and a patterned backside electrode are formed on a substrate sequentially in this order, and the patterning of at least one of the amorphous silicon semiconductor layer and the backside electrode is carried out in a step of forming at least one of the amorphous silicon semiconductor layer and the backside electrode with a wire mask being brought into substantially close contact with a surface subjected to film forming and a step of removing a thin film formed at a region between the wire mask and the surface subjected to film forming in the forming step; and a film forming apparatus used in the producing method comprising a holder which holds a substrate having a surface subjected to film forming, a mechanism for fixing and positioning the substrate on the holder and a plurality of wires which are disposed on the film forming surface side of the substrate and are to be brought into substantially close contact with the film forming surface. The method and the apparatus enable the film forming operation and the patterning operation to be carried out simultaneously without lowering the characteristics of a solar cell.

Method of producing a semiconductor device using a wire mask having a

A semiconductor device having a transparent electrode comprising SnO.sub.2, at least one semiconductor layer and a back electrode on a glass substrate wherein the dopant density of the transparent electrode is not more than 0.5 weight %, so that light absorption in the transparent electrode is lowered.

Semiconductor device having a transparent electrode and amorphous

A semiconductor device comprising a pin-type or nip-type amorphous-containing semiconductor layers; characterized in that (1) at least one interlayer made of semiconductor or insulator having higher electrical resistivity than a semiconductor which adjoins the interlayer is/are interposed between semiconductor layers or between a semiconductor and an electrode, (2) an amount of dopant in a p-type or n-type layer is least at a junction interface of p/i or n/i and increases gradually toward a junction interface of p/electrode or n/electrode, or (3) a p-type semiconductor layer being the same conductive type as the p-type semiconductor and having higher impurity density and/or an n-type semiconductor layer being the same conductive type as the n-type semiconductor layer and having higher impurity density is/are interposed between the p-type semiconductor layer and the electrode at the side of the p-type semiconductor layer and/or between the n-type semiconductor layer and the electrode at the side of the n-type semiconductor layer. According to the semiconductor device of the present invention (in the case of (1) or (2)), large Voc and electric current at a specific voltage can be obtained, further in the case of (3), photoelectric conversion efficiency can be improved.

Semiconductor pin device with interlayer or dopant gradient

An amorphous semiconductor film is prepared by the usual procedure and, then, established by exposing it to sufficient light intermittently to age the same. The degradation of the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor film on prolonged exposure to light is minimized by the above technique. The preferred intermittent light is a pulsed light. The above light treatment may be applied to an individual semiconductor film, a laminated assembly including at least the pin layers, a finished semiconductor device such as a solar cell or a semiconductor device prior to attachment of an electrode.

Method of stabilizing amorphous semiconductors

Integrated solar cell device

A semiconductor device comprising an amorphous semiconductor which might contain microcrystal therein, and a metal electrode electrically connected to the amorphous semiconductor and containing Al as a first component; wherein at least one element selected from the group consisting of (i)Ag, (ii)Au, (iii)Ca, Mg, Mn, W, Cr or Cu, (iv)Zn or Ge, and (v)Fe, Mo, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ti, V or Zr is added, as an additional component of the metal electrode, to the first component. According the present invention, there can be prevented the diffusion of an element of a metal electrode into a semiconductor layer during the production and the use of a semiconductor device. Thereby, the degradation of properties of the semiconductor device can be substantially prevented. Further, the yield of products can be improved and the lifetime of products can be greatly lengthened.

Semiconductor device

A photovoltaic device of amorphous or microcrystalline semiconductor having multijunction wherein one or more layer including high concentration impurities is interposed between p-type conductive layer and n-type conductive layer. A tunnel junction is formed by the interposed layer to elevate the photo-electric conversion rate.

Multiple junction solar power generation cells

An improved process for preparing a semiconductor layer by means of high frequency glow discharge generated between a ground electrode and a RF electrode, the improvement which comprises controlling a DC potential difference between the electrodes at a voltage of not more than 10 V. According to the process, the semiconductor layer formed on the RF electrode side is satisfactory in electrical and electronical properties, and can be practically used.

Process for preparing semiconductor layer

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device manufactured by removing a part of a semiconductor layer containing an amorphous semiconductor and which is formed over separate electrodes existing on the same substrate and characterized in that the mean oxygen content of the portion of the semiconductor adjacent the removed portion and 10 .mu.m inward is in a range of 0.5-10 atom %, and to a manufacturing method for the semiconductor device characterized in that the semiconductor layer is removed partly in an oxidative environment by the use of laser ray means. The invention provides semiconductor devices diminished in leak current.

Semiconductor device and its manufacturing method

A process for forming a film, characterized in that, in forming a film by glow discharge decomposition, one or more electrode pair rows each consisting of a plurality of high frequency electrode pairs are arranged in a line and in parallel and substrates are arranged on both sides of said electrode pair row approximately in parallel to the electrode pair row. According to the process, damage of the film due to plasma can be reduced, a shield on the back of the RF electrode is not needed, and a film of a large area can be obtained.

Film forming apparatus

A flexible photovoltaic device includes a flexible substrate and a photovoltaic device body. The flexible substrate is a metal foil or film provided with an electric insulating layer of a material having an electric conductivity of not more than 10.sup.-7 (.OMEGA..multidot.cm.).sup.-1 at the time of light impinging and made of an amorphous silicon nitride containing hydrogen.

Growing community of inventors

Kobe, Japan

Kazunori Tsuge