Nippon Sheet Glass Company, Limited

Kaneka Corporation

Koichiro Kiyohara

Akira Fujisawa

Kiyotaka Ichiki

Masahiro Hirata

Toru Yamamoto

Yukio Sueyoshi

Takahiro Asai

Yasunori Seto

Tsuyoshi Otani

Masatoshi Nara

Toru Sawada

Masato Hyodo

Hiroki Ando

The present invention provides a thin film-forming method by which, even when a thin film containing a crystalline metal oxide as the main component is formed over a wide area within a short time utilizing a thermal decomposition method, the thickness of the thin film becomes relatively uniform. A thin film-forming method of the present invention includes forming a thin film using a raw material containing a chloride of a metal, and prior to the forming of the thin film, 1) disposing metal-containing particles on the substrate, or 2) forming, at a film deposition rate slower than a film deposition rate for the thin film, a metal-containing thin film on the substrate, and wherein, in the case of the step 2), the thin film containing the metal oxide as the main component is directly formed on the metal-containing thin film.

Method for forming thin film, substrate having transparent electroconductive film and photoelectric conversion device using the substrate

A transparent conductive film wherein the height number distribution of projections present on the surface is expressed by a distribution function of &#x3c7;type having a degree of freedom of 3.5 to 15 when the unit of the horizontal axis is a nanometer, the height/width ratio number distribution is expressed by a distribution function of &#x3c7;type having a degree of freedom of 10-35&#x3c7;, the projections having a height of 50-350 nm account for 70% of more, and the projections having a height/width ratio of 0.25-1.02 account for 90% or more.

Transparent conductive film and its manufacturing method, and photoelectric conversion device comprising it

The present invention provides a glass substrate including a glass sheet, a thin film containing silica as its main component, and a group of metal oxide particles separated from one another, the metal oxide particles and the thin film being stacked on the glass sheet in that order from the glass sheet side, wherein the average height of the metal oxide particles is 10 to 100 nm. The present invention also provides a method of manufacturing the glass substrate, the method including forming a group of metal oxide particles by a thermal decomposition method including an inorganic metal chloride as a raw material.

Glass substrate and method of manufacturing the same

On a glass sheet, an undercoating layer and a conductive film containing tin oxide as a main component are formed suitably in this order. On the conductive film, a photoelectric conversion unit and a back electrode are formed, thus obtaining a thin film photoelectric conversion device. In the present invention, the absorption coefficient of this conductive film is decreased up to 1.2&times;10 cm or less. In another embodiment of the present invention, the chlorine concentration in a conductive film is set to be 0.11 wt. % or lower and the fluorine concentration in the conductive film is equal to or higher than the chlorine concentration. In still another embodiment, in a wavelength of 550 nm, a conductive film is formed so that a glass sheet with a conductive film has a transmittance of at least 79% and a haze ratio of at least 4%.

Glass sheet with conductive film, method of manufacturing the same, and photoelectric conversion device using the same

A glass substrate having a transparent conductive film of SnO is disclosed, in which the transparent conductive film is prevented from developing hair cracks even when it has a thickness of 5,000 &angst; or larger. The glass substrate comprises an alkali-containing base glass plate having a smooth surface and, formed thereon in this order, an undercoat for imparting roughness which has a thickness of 150 &angst; or larger and is made of a crystalline metal oxide, a continuous alkali barrier film made of SiO and having such a small thickness as to reflect the surface roughness of the undercoat, and a transparent conductive film made of SnO doped with one or more appropriate impurities and having a thickness of 5,000 &angst; or larger. The transparent conductive film has an adhesion strength of 37 mN or higher as measured in accordance with &ldquo;Adhesion Test for Thin Film Deposited on Glass Substrate &rdquo; as provided for in JIS R3255-1997.

Glass substrate having transparent conductive film

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Koichiro Kiyohara