Nanostructured transparent conducting electrode

Abstract

An optoelectronic device is disclosed. The optoelectronic device comprises an active layer and a conducting network layer which comprises a plurality of interconnected metal nanowires and a layer of transparent conducting material in electrical contact with the active layer. The conducting network layer of interconnected metal nanowires is disposed on the layer of transparent conducting material. Above the active layer, light passes through the transparent conducting material to reach the active layer. Each of the nanowires has an elongate, non-spherical configuration and aggregate nanowire length oriented to extend laterally through a plane of the conducting network layer. This provides lengthwise contact of the nanowires to the transparent conducting material.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO AN EARLIER FILED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 375,515 filed on Mar. 13, 2006, which is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 338,079 filed on Jan. 6, 2003, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,594,982 on Sep. 29, 2009, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 303,665 filed Nov. 22, 2002, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,253,017 on Aug. 7, 2007, and a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 319,406 filed Dec. 11, 2002, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,920 on Feb. 8, 2005. Application Ser. Nos. 10 / 303,665, 10 / 319,406 and 11 / 375,515 claim priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60 / 390,904, filed Jun. 22, 2002. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 375,515 is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 290,119, filed Nov. 5, 2002, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,291,782 on Nov. 6, 2007. The entire disclosures of applications of ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The nanostructured electrodes offer low sheet resistance and reduced manufacturing costs, enabling the production of inexpensive, environmentally stable, and highly conductive transparent electrodes for various device applications while maintaining optical transparency.

Problems solved by technology

The drawback of this approach is that metal oxides are not proper conductors, with sheet resistance typically being at least 5 Ohms / □ for the most expensive products and often more than 60-200 Ohms / □ for lower-priced materials.

As a result, there is currently a tradeoff when integrating lower-cost, high-resistivity conducting glasses into optoelectronic devices, with higher resistance translating into significant energy losses in several applications.

The alternative strategy of employing significantly more expensive, incrementally more conductive glasses, often with still unsatisfying resistivity, leads to a limited adoption of otherwise market-competitive products.

Thus, expensive TCEs represent a bottleneck in the development of inexpensive optoelectronic products; in many cases, the TCEs are currently the primary cost contributor within a complex device (e.g. solar cells, LEDs).

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