The Boeing Company

Shoghig Mesropian

Daniel C Law

Dimitri Daniel Krut

Philip T Chiu

Xiaobo Zhang

Geoffrey S Kinsey

Kenneth M Edmondson

A solar cell structure including a solar cell having a front surface and a back surface, a reflective layer disposed proximate the back surface and a flexible support layer disposed between the back surface and the reflective layer.

Solar cell structure with back surface reflector

Provided are methods and systems for treating shunts on solar cell substrates. Also provided are solar cells including such substrates. A shunt detected on a substrate proximate to a metallized grid pattern is electrically disconnected from at least the bus portion of the grid, which reduces shunt's impact on performance on the solar cell. An antireflective layer may be disposed between the shunt and a portion of the grid extending over the shunt. The exposure pattern of a photoresist used to form the antireflective layer may be adjusted accordingly to achieve this result. In some embodiments, the metallized grid may be modified by adjusting the exposure pattern of a photoresist used to form this grid. The grid may be modified to avoid any contact between the grid and the shunt or to disconnect a portion of the grid contacting the shunt from the bus portion area of the grid.

Shunt treatment in inverted and wafer bonded solar cells

A photovoltaic cell comprising a selectively patterned, transparent, conductive coating (TCC) on a sunward surface. The selectively patterned TCC is contiguous with at least some highly conductive gridlines on the sunward surface. A portion of the sunward surface of the semiconductor wafer is not covered by either the gridlines or the TCC. Also disclosed are methods of manufacturing a photovoltaic cell comprising a selectively patterned, transparent, conductive coating (TCC) on a sunward surface. The methods include the step of modeling the optical and electrical properties of the semiconductor, the gridlines, and the TCC to determine a pattern for the TCC that results in a low relative power loss for the photovoltaic cell.

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Tarzana, CA, United States of America

Shoghig Mesropian