Year: 2025
Type: report
Abstract: Eliminating photolithography from solar cell processing is a significant opportunity for cost reduction for III-V solar cells. In this work, we test femtosecond laser ablation and scribing as an alternative to contact photolithography and wet chemical etching for mesa isolation, when processing multijunction cells. We demonstrate that upright multijunction solar cells isolated by using the laser as a scribe to cleave through the substrate had virtually no performance loss when compared to a baseline cell processed with photolithography. By contrast, cells isolated by laser ablating through the active layers have performance losses that cannot be fully eliminated with post-processing etches. This demonstration of photolithography-free mesa isolation with no performance losses is promising for less expensive III-V manufacturing.
DOI: 10.2172/3013232
Authors: AJ Gray, Jeff Squier, Myles Steiner, Theresa Saenz
Institutions: National Laboratory of the Rockies, Colorado School of Mines
Language: English
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7124428719