The United States of America As Represented by the United States

Rockwell International Corporation

Applied Solar Energy Corporation

Marshall J Cohen

James R Waldrop

James S Harris, Jr

A protected solar cell including a monolithic bypass diode is formed by adding an additional layer of semiconductive material having a type opposite to the outermost semiconductive layer of a solar cell, and the resultant additional layer is cut back to form a small area bypass diode, which is subsequently connected across the solar cell by integrated circuit metallization techniques. The solar cell may be formed of gallium arsenide with the underlying semiconductive material being n-type gallium arsenide, and forming a junction with a thin layer of p-type gallium arsenide covered with a window of p-type aluminum gallium arsenide. The bypass diode is initially formed of a supplemental layer of n-type gallium arsenide, and by sucessive etching processes, an island is formed extending downward from a small area of n-type gallium arsenide through the two p-type layers. An insulating layer, which may be formed of silicon nitride, is deposited to avoid short circuiting of the output connection, and metallized connections from the bypass diode to the output circuitry of the solar cell, and to the underlying n-type layer are then completed.

Monolithic solar cell and bypass diode system

A photovoltaic cell structure is fabricated from an active medium including an undoped, intrinsically p-type organic semiconductor comprising polyacetylene. When a film of such material is in rectifying contact with a magnesium electrode, a Schottky-barrier junction is obtained within the body of the cell structure. Also, a gold overlayer passivates the magnesium layer on the undoped polyacetylene film.

Plastic Schottky barrier solar cells

A solar cell is constructed by coating an n-type conductivity semiconductor with a thin layer of bromine doped, polymeric sulfur-nitride, (SNBr.sub.0.4).sub.x. Metal deposits are provided on both materials for making electrical contact to the cell. In a preferred embodiment, the semiconductor is silicon. In a second preferred embodiment, the semiconductor is GaAs on an n.sup.+ -type conductivity GaAs substrate.

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Thousand Oaks, CA, United States of America

Marshall J Cohen