Coating substrate

Details Coating substrate Coating substrate

1998-10-05

2000-09-26

Evans, Elizabeth

Stock material or miscellaneous articles

Composite

Of metal

428469, 4284722, 428650, 428654, 428689, 216102, B32B 300

Patent

active

061240397

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coating substrate for thin-film coatings used in the manufacture of electronic components, said coating substrate containing a rolled product of aluminium or aluminium alloys, and being such that the substrate surface to be coated exhibits local irregularities in the structure in the form of small holes or small-grained or needle-shaped elements in the substrate surface. Further, the present invention relates to a process for manufacturing the coating substrate. In addition, the use of the coating substrate according to the invention is described.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The term electronic components includes e.g. electronic thin-film components such as diodes or transistors, in particular solar cells. The economic use of such electronic components depends essentially on the cost of manufacturing them.
By using thin-film technology, materials savings can be made in the manufacture of such electronic components and, by using continuous coating methods, large quantities can be made at favourable cost. As far as solar cell manufacture is concerned, this involves essentially solar cells of amorphous silicon (a-Si), or microcrystalline silicon (.mu.c-Si), or multiple cells of both or one of the two mentioned materials. Compared with solar cells of crystalline silicon which are made in batch processes e.g. on silicon wafers, such solar cells exhibit lower efficiency, but the cost of manufacture is much more favourable than that of solar cells made of crystalline silicon. Because of the lower efficiency of solar cells made from a-Si or .mu.c-Si--compared with solar cells made from crystalline silicon--large area, cost favourable modules are necessary in order to be able to use them economically.
The production of solar cells of a-Si or .mu.c-Si on glass substrates or foils of stainless steel is known.
Extended Abstracts, Vol. 86, No. 1, May 1986, p. 59 describes the manufacture of an a-Si solar cell of high purity (99.99 wt. %) in which the aluminium substrates are cleaned chemically and a repetitive surface structure is etched into the surface layer of the aluminium substrate by means of electrochemical methods in order to achieve multiple reflection of the incident light.
The publication EP-A-O 155 758 describes substrates with a light-sensetive composite layer containing a-Si for digital imaging using coherent laser-beam light in which, in order to avoid interference due to variations in layer thickness, the composite layer is made up in such a manner that at least one pair of non-parallel interfaces is produced between the layers, so that a layer with a continuously changing layer thickness is produced between these interfaces.
Up to now--because of the much higher efficiency, and hence smaller surface area required mono or polycrystalline silicon solar cells have been almost exclusively employed for photovoltaic energy-producing units that have been installed individually e.g. mounted on roofs or as free-standing units.
However, solar cells of a-Si or .mu.c-Si exhibit large potential in integral photovoltaic units for which a support surface is already provided for the solar cells. Especially in the construction of photovoltaic facade elements solar cell modules of a-Si or .mu.c-Si can be deposited over large areas directly onto the facade element using plasma-deposition, CVD (chemical vapour deposition) and PVD (physical vapour deposition) processes. As a result, a photovoltaic module of a-Si or .mu.c-Si deposited directly onto a facade element requires only approximately a quarter of the primary energy necessary to manufacture a corresponding module of crystalline silicon.
The potential for large area solar cells of a-Si or .mu.c-Si is therefore enormous. Such solar cells can be employed in buildings e.g. as facade elements, or in vehicle manufacture e.g. as bodywork cladding, and contribute significantly to the generation of electricity.
However, the production of electronic components using thin-film technol

REFERENCES:
patent: 5723221 (1998-03-01), Brooker
patent: 5760981 (1998-06-01), Gillich
patent: 5779871 (1998-07-01), Gillich
patent: 5904989 (1999-05-01), Hanggi
Extended Abstracts vol. 86, No. 1, Princeton, NJ, May 1986, p. 59, Abstract No. 46, H. Takei, et al., "Application of textured aluminum foil to amorphous silicon solar cell substrate".

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