DETAILED ACTION
Examiner’s Notes
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Remarks
Claim 1 is amended.
Claim 4 is cancelled.
Claims 1-3 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SAHLI (Fully textured monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with 25.2% power conversion efficiency) in view of DOU (Surface passivation of nano-textured silicon solar cells by atomic layer deposited Al2O3 films) and BASTIANI (Recombination junctions for efficient monolithic perovskite-based tandem solar cells: physical principles, properties, processing and prospects).
Regarding claim 1, SAHLI teaches a method for preparing a perovskite/silicon heterojunction tandem solar cell (see the method for preparing fully textured monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells) (see Fig. 1 and Methods), comprising:
preparing a p-i-n tandem structure (see preparing a p-i-n tandem structure in Fig. 1 and Methods), where preparing the p-i-n tandem structure comprises following steps:
(1) carrying out surface texturing treatment on an N-type crystalline silicon wafer (see Methods; n-type double-side-textured silicon float-zone wafers) (see Fig. 1 and Methods);
(2) carrying out passivation on both sides of the N-type crystalline silicon wafer (SAHLI does not explicitly disclose the claimed feature. However, DOU discloses a nano-textured silicon solar cell, wherein the thermal atomic layer deposited Al2O3 can conformally cover the rough surface and reduce the defect density of the nanostructures, and the Al2O3 layers can enhance the nano-textured silicon solar cell performance [see Abstract]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to applying the Al2O3 passivation layers on the both sides of the n-type double-side-textured silicon wafer in SAHLI as taught by DOU, because the Al2O3 passivation layers reduce the defect density of the textures, and enhance the textured silicon solar cell performance), and growing a first intrinsic amorphous silicon layer on one side of two sides of the passivated N-type crystalline silicon wafer and growing a second intrinsic amorphous silicon layer on the other side of the two sides of the passivated N-type crystalline silicon wafer by PECVD (see Methods; Intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers were deposited on both sides of the wafer in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) reactor; The bottom a-Si:H(i) layer correspond to the claimed “first intrinsic amorphous silicon layer” and the top a-Si:H(i) layer correspond to the claimed “second intrinsic amorphous silicon layer”) (see Fig. 1 and Methods);
(3) growing an n-type heavily-doped amorphous silicon layer and a p-type heavily-doped amorphous silicon layer on the second intrinsic amorphous silicon layer sequentially (SAHLI teaches the growing nc-Si:H(n+) layer and nc-Si:H(p+), which are the recombination junctions, on the a-Si:H(i) layer sequentially (see Fig. 1 and Methods), but does not explicitly disclose the amorphous silicon material. However, BASTIANI discloses various materials of recombination junctions for silicon-perovskite-based tandem solar cells, wherein Fig. 5 shows that a-Si:H(n+) material and a-Si:H(p+) material can be used as a part of recombination junctions (see Fig. 5(e)). It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ a-Si:H(n+) material and a-Si:H(p+) material for nc-Si:H(n+) layer and nc-Si:H(p+), respectively, in SAHLI as taught by BASTIANI, because the selection of a known material based on its suitability for its intended use supports a prima facie obviousness determination (MPEP 2144));
(4) growing a p-type doped amorphous silicon layer (see the a-Si:H(p) layer) on one side of the first intrinsic amorphous silicon layer away from the N-type crystalline silicon wafer (see Fig. 1 and Methods);
(5) growing a first hole transport layer and a second hole transport layer (see the bottom half layer of the Spiro-TTB layer and the top half layer of the Spiro-TBB layer, wherein the Spiro-TBB layer has hole transport property) on a surface of the p-type heavily-doped amorphous silicon layer (see Fig. 1 and Methods);
(6) preparing a perovskite absorber layer (see the perovskite layer, which has light absorbing property) on the second hole transport layer (see Fig. 1 and Methods);
(7) preparing a first electron transport layer (see the LiF layer, which has electron transport property) and a second electron transport layer (see the C60 layer, which has electron transport property) on the perovskite absorber layer sequentially (see Fig. 1 and Methods);
(8) preparing a first transparent conductive layer (see the ITO layer) on one side of the p-type doped amorphous silicon layer away from the first intrinsic amorphous silicon layer (see Fig. 1 and Methods), and preparing a second transparent conductive layer (see the SnO2/IZO layer) on the second electron transport layer (see Fig. 1 and Methods); and
(9) preparing a metal electrode layer (see the bottom Ag layer and the top Ag layer) on the surfaces of the first transparent conductive layer and the second transparent conductive layer respectively (see Fig. 1 and Methods).
Regarding claim 2, Applicant is directed above for a full discussion as applied to claim 1.
SAHLI teaches preparation methods of the first hole transport layer, the second hole transport layer, the first electron transport layer and the second electron transport layer are physical deposition methods or chemical deposition methods, where the physical deposition methods comprise vacuum evaporation, sputtering, ion beam deposition and pulsed laser deposition; and the chemical deposition methods comprise chemical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, spin coating, slot coating and doctor blade (see Methods; The spiro-TTB was thermally evaporated under base pressure < 2× 10−6 mbar, working pressure < 3× 10−6 mbar (corresponding to the claimed “physical deposition methods (vacuum evaporation)” and an electron selective stack of LiF (1 nm, 99.98%, Sigma-Aldrich)/C60 (15 nm, > 99.95%, NanoC) was then thermally evaporated under base pressure < 2× 10−6 mbar, working pressure > 3× 10−6 mbar (Both deposition methods corresponds to the claimed “physical deposition methods (vacuum evaporation)”).
Regarding claim 3, Applicant is directed above for a full discussion as applied to claim 1.
SAHLI teaches a preparation method of the perovskite absorber layer is a physical deposition method and/or a chemical deposition method, where the physical deposition method comprises vacuum evaporation, and the chemical deposition method comprises chemical vapor deposition, spin coating, slot coating and doctor blade (see Methods: The perovskite absorber was then deposited using a sequential two-step method. First, PbI2 was co-evaporated with CsBr in a Lesker mini-Spectros system (base pressure < 2× 10−6 mbar, working pressure < 5× 10−6 mbar). Subsequently, a mixture of formamidinium bromide and iodide (in 1 to 3 molar ratio, 0.513 M in ethanol, Greatcell Solar) was spin-coated (corresponding to the claimed “physical deposition method (vacuum evaporation) and chemical deposition method (spin coating)”).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 03/27/2026 have been fully considered, but they are not persuasive.
Regarding claim 1, Applicant’s argument regarding that the prior art does not teach or suggest the limitation “(3) growing an n-type heavily-doped amorphous silicon layer and a p-type heavily- doped amorphous silicon layer on the second intrinsic amorphous silicon layer sequentially; (4) growing a p-type doped amorphous silicon layer on one side of the first intrinsic amorphous silicon layer away from the N-type crystalline silicon wafer; (5) growing a first hole transport layer and a second hole transport layer on a surface of the p-type heavily-doped amorphous silicon layer; (8) preparing a first transparent conductive layer on one side of the p-type doped amorphous silicon layer away from the first intrinsic amorphous silicon layer, and preparing a second transparent conductive layer on the second electron transport layer” in the amended claim 1 in P4-P8, is not persuasive.
BASTIANI teaches a-Si:H(n+) material and a-Si:H(p+) material for nc-Si:H(n+) layer and nc-Si:H(p+). SAHLI in view of BASTIANI teaches (3) growing an n-type heavily-doped amorphous silicon layer and a p-type heavily- doped amorphous silicon layer on the second intrinsic amorphous silicon layer sequentially. SAHLI teaches (4) growing a p-type doped amorphous silicon layer (see the a-Si:H(p) layer) on one side of the first intrinsic amorphous silicon layer away from the N-type crystalline silicon wafer (see Fig. 1 and Methods) and (5) growing a first hole transport layer and a second hole transport layer (see the bottom half layer of the Spiro-TTB layer and the top half layer of the Spiro-TBB layer, wherein the Spiro-TBB layer has hole transport property) on a surface of the p-type heavily-doped amorphous silicon layer (see Fig. 1 and Methods), and (8) preparing a first transparent conductive layer (see the ITO layer) on one side of the p-type doped amorphous silicon layer away from the first intrinsic amorphous silicon layer (see Fig. 1 and Methods), and preparing a second transparent conductive layer (see the SnO2/IZO layer) on the second electron transport layer (see Fig. 1 and Methods) (see the full rejection of claim 1). (Examiner’s Note: The prior art rejection is based on the claimed subject matter, rather than to any general inventive concept set forth in the specification.)
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the modified and/or new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TAE-SIK KANG whose telephone number is 571-272-3190. The examiner can normally be reached on 9:00am – 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew T. Martin can be reached on 571-270-7871. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TAE-SIK KANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1728
Prosecution Insights