Patent ID: 8772076

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a Cu(In,Ga) Se 2 thin-film solar cell, comprising: forming an intermediate layer on a surface of a flexible conductive substrate, the flexible conductive substrate including iron (Fe) species, the step of forming the intermediate layer comprising: forming a conductive barrier stack on the surface of the flexible conductive substrate, the conductive barrier stack including a chromium (Cr) film applied to the surface of the flexible conductive substrate and a titanium nitride (TiN) film deposited on the Cr film; depositing a contact layer on the conductive barrier stack; depositing a nucleation layer on the contact layer; depositing an absorber precursor including Cu species, In species, Ga species and Se species over the nucleation layer; applying heat to the absorber precursor to form therefrom an absorber layer including a Cu(In,Ga) Se 2 compound, wherein the step of forming the absorber layer causes some of the Fe species in the flexible substrate to diffuse towards the absorber layer and some of the Se species in the absorber layer to diffuse towards the flexible conductive substrate, and wherein the conductive barrier stack inhibits diffusion of both the iron (Fe) species and the Se species across the conductive barrier stack during the step of applying heat; disposing a transparent conductive layer on the absorber layer, the transparent conductive layer including a buffer layer deposited on the absorber layer and a transparent conductive oxide layer formed on the buffer layer; forming a top terminal on the transparent conductive layer, thereby resulting in the Cu(In,Ga) Se 2 thin-film solar cell; and wherein after the step of forming, the conductive barrier stack continues to inhibit diffusion of both the iron (Fe) species and the Se species across the conductive barrier stack.