Patent ID: 8809110

Claim:
A method of fabricating a pattern of long-range ordered electrical access openings through a backing layer of a solar cell to provide access to a photovoltaic material adjacent the backing layer, the method comprising: directing at least two at least partially overlapping laser beams onto the backing layer to form an interference pattern comprising a plurality of first substantially equally-spaced parallel lines; directing at least two at least partially overlapping laser beams onto the backing layer to form an interference pattern comprising a plurality of second substantially equally-spaced parallel lines disposed at a non-zero angle with respect to the first parallel lines; and exposing the backing layer to the interference patterns for a time sufficient to ablate the backing layer to form the pattern of electrical access openings completely through the backing layer to expose the photovoltaic material, the electrical access openings disposed only at locations where the first parallel lines intersect the second parallel lines.