Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd.

Clean Venture 21 Corporation

Mikio Murozono

Kuniyoshi Omura

Hiroshi Higuchi

Takeshi Hibino

Akira Hanafusa

Tsuyoshi Nishio

Satoshi Shibutani

Toshiyuki Nakamura

Noboru Mouri

Hideaki Oyama

Tetsuya Aramoto

Takashi Arita

Yoshiaki Kodani

Young-tae Park

Yoshihiro Hamakawa

Hideyuki Takakura

Noriyuki Ueno

Nobuo Nakayama

Sotoyuki Kitamura

Yuutaro Kita

Hazime Takada

Naoki Suyama

Shigeo Kondoh

Seiji Kumazawa

Young-Tae Park

A method for producing a photovoltaic device that includes spherical photovoltaic elements and a support with a large number of recesses for receiving the elements one by one and to the photovoltaic device. Each of the spherical photovoltaic elements includes a spherical first semiconductor and a second semiconductor layer covering the first semiconductor. A conductive adhesive is applied to the bottoms of the recesses of the support serving as a second conductor layer. The elements are disposed in the bottoms of the recesses with the conductive adhesive applied thereto, to fix the elements to the support and electrically connect their second semiconductor layers to the support. An electrical insulator layer, which has through-holes serving as conductive paths, is bonded to the backside of the support, and a first conductor layer, which interconnects the electrodes of the first semiconductors of the respective elements, is formed thereon.

Method for producing photovoltaic device and photovoltaic device

This invention relates to a method for producing a photovoltaic device that includes spherical photovoltaic elements and a support with a large number of recesses for receiving the elements one by one and to the photovoltaic device. Each of the spherical photovoltaic elements comprises a spherical first semiconductor and a second semiconductor layer covering the surface of the first semiconductor. A conductive adhesive is applied in advance to the bottoms of the recesses of the support serving as a second conductor layer. The elements are disposed in the bottoms of the recesses with the conductive adhesive applied thereto, to fix the elements to the support and electrically connect their second semiconductor layers to the support. An electrical insulator layer, which has through-holes serving as conductive paths, is bonded to the backside of the support, and a first conductor layer, which interconnects the electrodes of the first semiconductors of the respective elements, is formed thereon.

A photoelectric conversion element is disposed in each of a plurality of recesses of a support. Light reflected by the inside surface of the recess shines on the photoelectric conversion element. The photoelectric conversion element has an approximately spherical shape and has the following structure. The outer surface of a center-side n-type amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer is covered with a p-type amorphous SiC (a-SiC) layer having a wider optical band gap than a-Si does, whereby a pn junction is formed. A first conductor of the support is connected to the p-type a-SiC layer of the photoelectric conversion element at the bottom or its neighborhood of the recess. A second conductor, which is insulated from the first conductor by an insulator, of the support is connected to the n-type a-Si layer of the photoelectric conversion element.

Photovoltaic apparatus and mass-producing apparatus for mass-producing spherical semiconductor particles

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a compound semiconductor thin film by the thermal decomposition of a metal organic compound and a solar cell using the above thin film. An organic solvent solution of the metal organic compound containing at least one metal-sulfur bond is pulverized into fine particles by an ultrasonic vibration method or by a spray injection method and the obtained fine particles or gaseous metal organic compound are thermally decomposed by contacting them on the heated surface of a thin film forming substrate and thus a compound semiconductor metal sulfide thin film is formed on the thin film forming substrate. With this method, a compound semiconductor thin film of large surface area with uniform quality can be manufactured at low manufacturing cost with good reproducibility. These metal sulfide thin films are of high purity, high density and high quality and thus can be used for various photo-electronic devices.

Method of manufacturing a compound semiconductor thin film on a substrate

Method for preparing CdTe film and solar cell using the same

A semiconductor layer for photoelectric transfer device for forming a p-n junction, which has large surface area and uniform film pressure, is formed in the atmosphere under normal pressure for several minutes. The semiconductor layer for forming a p-n junction is composed of a compound semiconductor of a Group II element(selected from the group consisting of Cd, Zn and Hg)-Group VI element(selected from the group consisting of S and Te). A semiconductor layer having a p or n conductive type is formed on a substrate by pyrolytically decomposing an organometallic compound containing a II-VI group atom bond. A semiconductor film is formed on the surface of a substrate by dispersing or dissolving an organometallic compound in a solvent to form a solution, applying ink on the surface of the substrate using a suitable printing method and subjecting to a heat treatment.

Method of preparing a semiconductor layer for an optical transforming

This invention relates to a manufacturing method of a compound semiconductor thin film derived from a metal sulfide produced by thermal decomposition of a sulfur-containing metal organic compound, the compound containing at least one functional group having at least one metal atom selected from the group consisting of copper, zinc, cadmium, mercury, and lead, and the functional group also containing at least one sulfur atom. Since the obtained metal sulfides are of high-purity and dense, they can be utilized in various photoelectric devices. Particularly, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of a CdS/CdTe system thin film compound semiconductor solar cell can be improved remarkably by employing a layer made of a CdS thin film as a window of the solar cell.

Method of manufacturing a compound semiconductor thin film for a

A method of manufacturing a solar cell, comprising the steps of forming a layer of n-type compound semiconductor, a layer of p-type compound semiconductor, and an electrode layer on a glass substrate, wherein at least one of said steps of forming a layer of compound semiconductor layer comprises preparing a paste by mixing a semiconductor raw material and a viscous agent, applying said paste to said substrate, drying said paste to harden it, and firing the dried paste, and vibrating said substrate during or after the application of the paste, to remove the bubbles in the paste, resulting in a semiconductor layer which is smooth, dense, and having good adhesion, thus realizing a solar cell with improved and uniform characteristics.

Method of manufacturing solar cell

A solar cell is constructed using a heterojunction formed by layering an n-type compound semiconductor followed by a p-type compound semiconductor on an insulator layer containing titanium oxide which has been formed on one side of a glass plate. The insulator layer can improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the solar cell by lowering the sheet resistance of the n-type semiconductor film which is used as the window material of the solar cell. In addition, light transmittance is improved.

Substrate for solar cell and solar cell employing the substrate

A polycrystalline CuInSe.sub.2 film is produced by adding a liquid cooling medium to a mixture of Cu, In and Se powders, grinding the resulting composition by means of a ball-mill to provide a slurry containing CuInSe.sub.2 of low crystallinity, drying and adding a binding agent to the slurry to form a paste, coating a substrate with the paste, and sintering the paste so applied under a nitrogen atmosphere. The starting materials that can be used are not limited to respective powders of the above-mentioned elements but may be Cu-Se and In-Se compounds and the method provides CuInSe.sub.2 of excellent quality on a mass production scale at low cost.

Method for production of copper indium diselenide

Growing community of inventors

Hirakata, Japan

Mikio Murozono