USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Robert J Walters

Phillip P Jenkins

David Scheiman

Michael K Yakes

Raymond Hoheisel

Cory D Cress

Woojun Yoon

Justin Lorentzen

Jeffrey H Warner

María González

Matthew Lumb

Louise C Hirst

Christopher Bailey

Kenneth Schmieder

Scott R Messenger

Antonio Marti Vega

Elisa Antolín Fernández

Esther López Estrada

Phillip Jenkins

A spectral radiometer system, measures incoming light intensity and spectral distribution in different wavelength-bands. An additional data storage device allows recording of the measured data. The inclusive sensor system yields very high sensitivity to incoming light. Furthermore, outstanding linearity of the detector response over several orders of magnitude of incoming light is achieved. Additional benefits are ultra low power consumption and minimum size. The sensor system can be used in remote solar radiation monitoring applications like mobile solar power units as well as in long-term environmental monitoring systems where high precision and low power consumption is a necessity.

Ultra low power solid state spectral radiometer

A method for making an ultra-thin, flexible crystalline silicon solar cell from thick, inflexible cells. A thick, inflexible cell having a plurality of electrical contacts on the back side thereof is adhered to a mount by means of a temporary bonding adhesive tape and a thickness of the mounted stack. A thickness of the bonding tape and the back-side contacts is determined and compared to a desired thickness of the final cell. Excess material is ground from the front side of the stack to obtain a thinned stack having the desired thickness and the thinned stack is removed from the mount to produce an ultra-thin, flexible rear-contact Si solar cell having a total thickness of less than 80 &#x3bc;m and a bending radius of less than 20 mm. The front surface can be textured, with a passivation layer and/or a dielectric layer being deposited thereon.

Ultra-thin flexible rear-contact Si solar cells and methods for manufacturing the same

A novel, low cost method for manufacturing flexible crystalline ultra-thin Si solar cells using previously fabricated inflexible crystalline Si solar cells. A stack of metal layers is coated onto a front side of previously completed inflexible crystalline Si solar cells. The stack serves as a bonding layer as well as an electrically conducting layer between the inflexible solar cell and the carrier substrate. The front side of the coated inflexible Si solar cell is bonded onto the carrier substrate. Back side layers from the starting inflexible solar cell are removed, as is much of the base layer, so that only a thin base layer remains, with the thin base layer and emitter region having a total thickness of between 1 &#x3bc;m and 30 &#x3bc;m and the final cell having a total thickness of about 10 to about 125 &#x3bc;m.

Flexible crystalline ultra-thin Si solar cells

Photovoltaic (PV) device comprising an ultra-thin radiation-tolerant PV absorber mounted on a flexible film having an embedded persistent phosphor and having a plurality of interdigitated top and bottom contacts on the top of the PV absorber. The PV absorber is ultra-thin, e.g., typically having a thickness of 300 nm or less for a III-V-based absorber. The phosphor absorbs some of the photons incident on the device and then discharges them for use by the device in generating electrical power during times when the device is not illuminated by the sun.

Ultra-thin, flexible and radiation-tolerant eclipse photovoltaics

A semiconductor device that utilizes intraband photon absorption in quantum dots to provide a capacitive photodetector. The presence of the quantum dots creates confined energy states within the photodetector device. Electrons are trapped in these confined energy states. When the photodetector is illuminated by light having an appropriate photon energy, the stored electrons are released to the conduction band, causing a change in the capacitance of the photodetector. By measuring this change in capacitance, light incident on the photodetector can be detected and quantified.

Capacitive infrared photodetector comprising a quantum dot layer

A device is described that includes sensors that are sensitive to displacement damage, and can be configured to display a characteristic damage curve. The sensors, or diodes, can be made of one or more semiconductor materials that are sensitive to displacement damage, and can be operated in dark illumination conditions. The sensors can have multiple shields of a specific or varied thickness. The shields can be formed in different configurations, though the shielding thickness can be designed to change the level of displacement damage absorbed by the sensors. The characteristic damage curve can provide a sensor response variable that displays a functional dependence on displacement damage. For example, the characteristic damage curve can provide a sensor response variable that is one or more currents measured at one or more fixed voltages, or one or more voltages measured at one or more fixed currents.

Microelectronic displacement damage dose detector

A strain-balanced quantum well tunnel junction (SB-QWTJ) device. QW structures are formed from alternating quantum well and barrier layers situated between nand players in a tunnel junction formed on a substrate. The quantum well layers exhibit a compressive strain with respect to the substrate, while the barrier layers exhibit a tensile strain. The composition and layer thicknesses of the quantum well and barrier layers are configured so that the compressive and tensile strains in the structure are balanced.

Growing community of inventors

Alexandria, VA, United States of America

Robert J Walters