Fundamentals of Using Cracked Film Lithography to Pattern Transparent Conductive Metal Grids for Photovoltaics

The fundamentals of using cracked film lithography (CFL) to fabricate metal grids for transparent contacts in solar cells were studied. The underlying physics of drying-induced cracks were well-predicted by an empirical correlation relating crack spacing to capillary pressure. CFL is primarily controlled by varying the crack template thickness, which establishes a three-way tradeoff between the areal density of cracks, crack width, and spacing between cracks, which in turn determine final grid transmittance, grid sheet resistance, and the semiconductor resistance for a given solar cell. Since CFL uses a lift-off process, an additional constraint is that the metal thickness must be less than 1/3 of the crack template thickness. The transmittance/grid sheet resistance/wire spacing tradeoffs measured in this work were used to calculate solar cell performance: CFL-patterned grids should outperform screen-printed grids for narrow cells (0.5-2 cm wide) and/or cells with high semiconductor sheet resistance (≥100 ω/sq), making CFL attractive for monolithically integrated thin-film photovoltaic modules.