International Business Machines Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

Harold John Hovel

Rainer Klaus Krause

Xiaoyan Shao

Devendra K Sadana

Steven Erik Steen

Jerry M Woodall

Lawrence Alfred Clevenger

Kevin M Prettyman

Stephen W Bedell

Katherine Lynn Saenger

Kevin Shawn Petrarca

Zhengwen O Li

Qiang Huang

Gerd Pfeiffer

Brian Christopher Sapp

Thermon E McKoy

Carl John Radens

Jack Oon Chu

Young-Hee Kim

Daniel Aneurin Inns

Thomas F Kuech

Huilong Zhu

Jeehwan Kim

Sampath Purushothaman

Hariklia Deligianni

Kerry Bernstein

Joel Pereira De Souza

Supratik Guha

Fuad Elias Doany

Jane M Shaw

George Frederick Walker

Robert L Wisnieff

Naftali Eliahu Lustig

Alessandro Cesare Callegari

Markus Schmidt

Hans-Juergen Eickelmann

Christy Sensenich Tyberg

David Earle Seeger

Satyavolu S Papa Rao

Rodney T Hodgson

Douglas Andrew Buchanan

Ronald Dean Goldblatt

Michael Haag

James Vichiconti

Kathryn C Fisher

Andrew T Pomerene

Donis G Flagello

Susan Huang

Douglas C Latulipe, Jr

Howard M Clearfield

Fredric D Bailey

Christopher M Scherpereel

Alexander Reznicek

Ghavam G Shahidi

Bahman Hekmatshoartabari

Ning Li

Keith E Fogel

Davood Shahrjerdi

Cyril Cabral, Jr

Christian Lavoie

Fei Liu

Kenneth Parker Rodbell

Zhen Zhang

John Michael Cotte

Dirk Pfeiffer

Gregory M Fritz

Keith Randal Pope

Robert Rosenberg

Maurice McGlashan-Powell

Jee Hwan Kim

Richard L Kleinhenz

Daniel Guidotti

Raman Vaidyanathan

William S Graham

A Eugene Blakeslee

Ranier Krauser

Marlene Isabel Almonte

A solar cell panel with a bottom cover plate and an electrically conductive bus bar. A top cover plate having at least one electrically conductive land in communication with a bottom surface of the top cover plate. The land having a height extending from the bottom surface of the top cover plate. An array of rows and columns of solar cell chips lying between the bottom cover plate and the top cover plate. Each solar cell chip of the array having an anode adjacent to a top surface and a cathode adjacent to a bottom surface. The bus bar in electrical communication with each cathode of each solar cell chip of the array. Each land in electrical contact with each anode of a solar cell chip of the array. An opening formed between adjacent lands wherein the opening extends at least the height of the lands.

Solar cell panels and method of fabricating same

A solar cell having n-type and p-type interdigitated back contacts (IBCs), which cover the entire back surface of the absorber layer. The spatial separation of the IBCs is in a direction perpendicular to the back surface, thus providing borderless contacts having a zero-footprint separation. As the contacts are on the back, photons incident on the cell's front surface can be absorbed without any shadowing.

Solar cell with interdigitated back contacts formed from high and low work-function-tuned silicides of the same metal

A solar energy conversion device comprises a vertical stack of at least two panels stacked in a hierarchy from an upper panel to a lower panel with each of the panels including a matching array of solar cells having a different energy bandgap from other panels of solar cells in the vertical stack of panels. Each panel in the vertical stack may be arranged with one of the panels having solar cells with a higher energy bandgap situated in the hierarchy and in the stack above others of the panels containing solar cells with a lower energy bandgap. The top surface of the device is adapted for receiving solar energy incident upon the uppermost panel. Each upper panel absorbs a fraction of sunlight with larger solar photon energies larger than the energy bandgap thereof.

Optical tandem photovoltaic cell panels

An energy conversion device comprises at least two thin film photovoltaic cells fabricated separately and joined by wafer bonding. The cells are arranged in a hierarchical stack of decreasing order of their energy bandgap from top to bottom. Each of the thin film cells has a thickness in the range from about 0.5 &#x3bc;m to about 10 &#x3bc;m. The photovoltaic cell stack is mounted upon a thick substrate composed of a material selected from silicon, glass, quartz, silica, alumina, ceramic, metal, graphite, and plastic. Each of the interfaces between the cells comprises a structure selected from a tunnel junction, a heterojunction, a transparent conducting oxide, and an alloying metal grid; and the top surface and/or the lower surface of the energy conversion device may contain light-trapping means.

Tandem nanofilm photovoltaic cells joined by wafer bonding

The instant disclosure relates to contact grids for use in photovoltaic cells, wherein a cross-section of the contact grid fingers is shaped as a trapezoid, as well as a method of making photovoltaic cells comprising these contact grids. The contact grids of the instant disclosure are cost effective and, due to their thick metal grids, exhibit minimum resistance. Despite having thick metal grids, the unique shape of the contact grid fingers of the instant disclosure allow the photovoltaic cells in which they are employed to retain more solar energy than traditional solar cells by reflecting incoming solar energy back onto the surface of the solar cell instead of reflecting this energy away from the cell.

Low resistance, low reflection, and low cost contact grids for photovoltaic cells

A solar cell panel and method of forming a solar cell panel. The method includes a: forming an electrically conductive bus bar on a top surface of a bottom cover plate; forming an electrically conductive contact frame proximate to a bottom surface of a top cover plate, the top cover plate transparent to visible light; and placing an array of rows and columns of solar cell chips between the bottom cover plate and the top cover plate, each solar cell chip of the array of solar cell chips comprising an anode adjacent to a top surface and a cathode adjacent to a bottom surface of the solar cell chip, the bus bar electrically contacting each cathode of each solar cell chip of the array of solar cell chips and the contact frame contacting each anode of each solar cell chip of the array of solar cell chips.

A multi-junction photovoltaic device includes a silicon substrate and a dielectric layer formed on the silicon substrate. A germanium layer is formed on the dielectric layer. The germanium includes a crystalline structure that is substantially similar to the crystalline structure of the silicon substrate. A first photovoltaic sub-cell includes a first plurality of doped semiconductor layers formed on the germanium layer. At least a second photovoltaic sub-cell includes a second plurality of doped semiconductor layers formed on the first photovoltaic sub-cell that is on the germanium layer that is on the dielectric layer.

Silicon wafer based structure for heterostructure solar cells

A gate dielectric material and a gate conductor portion are formed on a single-crystal semiconductor material of a substrate. A dielectric structure is then formed surrounding the gate conductor portion and thereafter a stressor layer is formed on the dielectric structure. A controlled spalling process is then performed and thereafter a material removal process can be used to expose a surface of the single-crystal semiconductor material. A source region and a drain region are then formed on the exposed surface of the single-crystal semiconductor material, which exposed surface is opposite the surface including the gate dielectric.

Back gate single-crystal flexible thin film transistor and method of making

A stack of a first anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer and a titanium layer is formed on a front surface of a semiconductor substrate including a p-n junction, and is subsequently patterned so that a semiconductor surface is physically exposed in metal contact regions of the front surface of the semiconductor substrate. The remaining portion of the titanium layer is converted into a titania layer by oxidation. A metal layer is plated on the metal contact regions, and a copper line is subsequently plated on the metal layer or a metal semiconductor alloy derived from the metal layer. A second ARC layer is deposited over the titania layer and the copper line, and is subsequently patterned to provide electrical contact to the copper line.

Integration of a titania layer in an anti-reflective coating

Tandem nanofilm interconnected semiconductor wafer solar cells

A photovoltaic device and method include a substrate layer having a plurality of structures including peaks and troughs formed therein. A continuous photovoltaic stack is conformally formed over the substrate layer and extends over the peaks and troughs. The photovoltaic stack has a thickness of less than one micron and is configured to transduce incident radiation into current flow.

Efficient nanoscale solar cell and fabrication method

Segmented semiconductor nanowires are manufactured by removal of material from a layered structure of two or more semiconductor materials in the absence of a template. The removal takes place at some locations on the surface of the layered structure and continues preferentially along the direction of a crystallographic axis, such that nanowires with a segmented structure remain at locations where little or no removal occurs. The interface between different segments can be perpendicular to or at angle with the longitudinal direction of the nanowire.

Super lattice/quantum well nanowires

Growing community of inventors

Katonah, NY, United States of America

Harold John Hovel