Alternate use for low viscosity liquids and method to gel liquid

Abstract

The present disclosure teaches a method and apparatus to gel a dopant material, which may be a low viscosity liquid, and apply it towards beneficially coating dopant liquid in the manufacture of a three-dimensional thin-film solar cell substrate. As an alternate to using high viscosity dopants, a dopant coating liquid, which is typically distributed in low viscosity alcohol based liquid forms, may instead be utilized as a dopant material in a gelatinous state towards the manufacture of a three-dimensional thin-film solar cell substrate. The methods and devices disclosed herein provide for enhancing the high viscosity characteristics of a dopant material. The present disclosure teaches the use of the dopant material in its gelatinous state towards an exemplary cavity filling method. The more cotable dopant material is applied in an exemplary coating layout and an exemplary integrated coating system to achieve improvements in coating coverage with regards to uniformity, which may be, but is not limited to, homogeneity, color uniformity, opacity, and density of the dopant material.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This U.S. Patent Application is a continuation-in-part of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 193,415 filed Aug. 18, 2008 entitled “METHODS OF LIQUID TRANSFER COATING OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL SUBSTRATES” by inventor David Xuan-Qi Wang, et al., which claims the benefit to priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 956,388, filed Aug. 17, 2007, entitled, “LIQUID TRANSFER COATING APPARATUS AND METHODS” by inventor David Xuan-Qi Wang, et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.[0002]This U.S. Patent Application is also a continuation-in-part of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 477,095 filed Jun. 2, 2009 entitled, “ALTERNATE USE FOR LOW VISCOSITY LIQUIDS AND METHOD TO GET LIQUID” by inventor Rob (Qing Yuan) Ong, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 007,549, filed Jun. 2, 2008, entitled, “ALTERNATE USE FOR LOW VISCOSITY LIQUIDS AND METHOD TO GET LIQU...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Several layers of coating material may be applied simultaneously to a moving web, but there may be a risk of imperfections.

When it starts to gel or solidify, manufacturers such typically consider this as a detrimental change because the material is no longer usable for spin-coating applications.

Typically, the material is only used to the point when it starts to gel or solidify and do not attempt to understand the subsequent dopant characteristics.

In addition, spin-on dopant may not be designed to transition through the gel state.

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