US 12,009,445 B2
Method of patterning a thin-film photovoltaic layer stack
Shuping Lin, Schwaebisch Hall (DE); Raffael Reineker, Kuenzelsau (DE); Hongqing Shan, Cupertino, CA (US); Joachim Leopold Ludwig Müller, Fellbach (DE); Bernd Sprecher, Schwaebisch Hall (DE); and Kay Ogassa, Leinfelden-Echterdingen (DE)
Appl. No. 17/800,617
Filed by NICE SOLAR ENERGY GMBH, Schwäbisch Hall (DE)
PCT Filed Feb. 17, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/053823
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Aug. 18, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/165286, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 26, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 20158477 (EP), filed on Feb. 20, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0080774 A1, Mar. 16, 2023
Int. Cl. H01L 31/0463 (2014.01); H01L 31/0224 (2006.01); H01L 31/032 (2006.01)
CPC H01L 31/0463 (2014.12) [H01L 31/022425 (2013.01); H01L 31/0322 (2013.01)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of patterning a thin-film photovoltaic layer stack comprising:
providing a continuous layer stack, the layer stack comprising a substrate, a first electrode layer on the substrate and a photovoltaic layer on the first electrode layer;
immersing the layer stack into an electrically conductive solution;
applying a bias voltage between the electrically conductive solution and the first electrode layer;
selectively removing the photovoltaic layer along a first line and forming a first trench in the photovoltaic layer before or after immersing the layer stack into the electrically conductive solution; and
converting a first material or a first material composition provided in at least a first portion of the layer stack into a first reaction product by an electrochemical reaction, wherein the first reaction product has an electrical conductivity that is lower than an electrical conductivity of the first material or the first material composition,
wherein the first material or the first material composition of the first portion of the layer stack comprises Molybdenum (Mo), and wherein the first reaction product comprises MoOx, with 2.5<x≤3.