Patent ID: 9647158
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: H01L,Y02E

Claim:
1. A method comprising: opening, in a device comprising thin film stack layers deposited on a substrate, a first scribe through a top contact layer, an absorber layer, and a bottom contact layer of the thin film stack layers, wherein the first scribe divides the thin film stack layers into a first sub-cell and a second sub-cell, and wherein the first scribe exposes a side of the bottom contact layer of the first sub-cell and a side of the bottom contact layer of the second sub-cell; printing, subsequent to opening the first scribe, one or more layers of an insulator material across a bottom of the first scribe, from the first sub-cell to the second sub-cell, such that the insulator material covers the side of the bottom contact layer of the first sub-cell and the side of the bottom contact layer of the second sub-cell; opening, subsequent to printing the insulator material, a second scribe in the second sub-cell, adjacent to the first scribe, from the top contact layer and sufficiently through the thin film stack layers to expose at least a portion of the bottom contact layer of the second sub-cell; and depositing, subsequent to opening the second scribe, an electrically conducting material into the first and second scribes such that the electrically conducting material electrically couples the top contact layer of the first sub-cell to the bottom contact layer of the second sub-cell, wherein the insulator material electrically insulates the electrically conducting material from the bottom contact layer of the first sub-cell.