Solar Cell Electrode Zoning for Large-Area Resistance Loss
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional thin-film solar cells face a significant reduction in photoelectric conversion efficiency when scaled up for large-area applications, such as smart glasses, due to increased film rectangular resistance, leading to short battery life and inadequate power supply for wearable devices.
Innovation Solution
A solar cell design featuring a front and back electrode with high- and low-conductivity regions, where the high-conductivity regions surround the low-conductivity regions to facilitate uniform photocurrent convergence, reducing film rectangular resistance and enhancing efficiency, while using conductive mesh structures and transparent conductive oxides to maintain transparency and conductivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the solar cell area is increased for large-area applications, then the power supply capacity is improved, but the film rectangular resistance increases and photoelectric conversion efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode is divided into multiple independent conductive mesh layers with different patterns and conductivities. The front electrode includes a first conductive mesh layer and a second conductive mesh layer, while the back electrode includes a third conductive mesh layer. This segmentation allows each layer to contribute differently to current collection, reducing overall film rectangular resistance in large-area solar cells.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the electrode are designed with different conductive properties. The conductive mesh layers have varying conductivity values optimized for their specific positions and functions within the solar cell structure, allowing local optimization of electrical properties to minimize resistance losses across the entire large-area device.
2Area of stationary object
If the solar cell area is increased, then the power supply capacity is improved, but the photoelectric conversion efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode is divided into multiple independent conductive mesh layers with different patterns and conductivities. The front electrode includes a first conductive mesh layer and a second conductive mesh layer, while the back electrode includes a third conductive mesh layer. This segmentation allows each layer to contribute differently to current collection, reducing overall film rectangular resistance in large-area solar cells.
Solution Approach 2:
The electrode structure uses a composite of multiple conductive mesh layers with different materials and conductivities. This composite structure optimizes both electrical conductivity and optical transparency, maintaining high photoelectric conversion efficiency while scaling to large areas by balancing electrical and optical requirements across multiple functional layers.
3Reliability
If a translucent conductive mesh layer is added to improve conductivity, then the electrical resistivity is reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode is divided into multiple independent conductive mesh layers with different patterns and conductivities. The front electrode includes a first conductive mesh layer and a second conductive mesh layer, while the back electrode includes a third conductive mesh layer. This segmentation allows each layer to contribute differently to current collection, reducing overall film rectangular resistance in large-area solar cells.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design significantly improves the photoelectric conversion efficiency of large-area solar cells, extending battery life in wearable devices like smart glasses and enabling effective power supply for integrated functions.
Implementation Method 1
a photoelectric conversion layer; and first and second electrodes formed on surfaces of the photoelectric conversion layer
Data Source
Figure 1~2a
Figure 2b~3
Figure 4a~4b
AI summary
This application provides a solar cell (20), including a front electrode (21), a functional layer (23), and a back electrode (22). The front electrode is an electrode on a side of an illuminated surface. The front electrode includes a high-conductivity region (B) and a low-conductivity region (A) that are adjacent to each other, or the back electrode includes a high-conductivity region (D) and a low-conductivity region (C) that are adjacent to each other. In the solar cell, the front electrode and/or the back electrode may be designed to be separated by region, and conductivity of one conductive region is designed to be higher than conductivity of the other conductive region. This can effectively avoid a film rectangular resistance loss caused by large-scale non-uniform lateral transfer of a photocurrent, and improve photoelectric conversion efficiency of the cell. In addition, cell comprehensive performance can be improved by flexibly selecting materials based on different requirements of different regions in different application scenarios. This application further provides an electronic device (200) including the solar cell (20).