Skysun, LLC

Sverdrup Technology, Inc.

Essential Research, Inc.

Victor George Weizer

James Joseph Clair

Martin O Patton

Samar Sinharoy

Navid S Fatemi

A concentrator having a reflective surface () and a pair of flexible members () supporting the deformable reflective surface so as to define its shape. A mechanism () is movably mounted to a vertical support and has one end of each of the flexible members () attached thereto. A controller drives rotation-changing linkage and tension-varying linkage so as to move the mechanism () to impart a toric shaped curvature on the reflective surface (). This toric shaped curvature minimizes astigmatic aberration due to obliquely incident radiation and changes as the solar point moves throughout the day.

Solar radiation concentrating system

As the concentration of electromagnetic radiation, especially solar radiation, can be utilized for constructive purposes it becomes desirable to concentrate the radiation in an economical manner. An essentially fixed concentrating reflector whose shape is generated by gravity's effect on flexible members provides an efficient means to collect and concentrate radiation. Historically in optical science aberrations are to be avoided or eliminated, however this device utilizes the aberration of astigmatism. By taking advantage of the astigmatic foci created by obliquely incident radiation falling upon a substantially sphere-like primary, a comparatively large fixed concentrator can be constructed inexpensively. The resulting tangential and sagittal astigmatic foci are linear. The length of the astigmatic foci can be a substantial portion of the diameter of the concentrator, especially at times of lower solar elevation. A toric shaped deformation of the reflective surface reduces the size of the chosen astigmatic focus to yield higher concentration. In the ideal the astigmatic focus is reduced to a point. A receiver located at the reduced astigmatic focus utilizes the concentrated radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation concentrating system

A solar cell comprising a substrate, a buffer layer, a first subcell, a second subcell, and a third subcell, where said first subcell, said second subcell, and said third subcell are lattice matched, and where said substrate is lattice mismatched with said first, second, and third subcells.

Multi-junction photovoltaic cell

A method of enhancing the specific contact resistivity in InP semiconductor devices and improved devices produced thereby are disclosed. Low resistivity values are obtained by using gold ohmic contacts that contain small amounts of gallium or indium and by depositing a thin gold phosphide interlayer between the surface of the InP device and the ohmic contact. When both the thin interlayer and the gold-gallium or gold-indium contact metallizations are used, ultra low specific contact resistivities are achieved. Thermal stability with good contact resistivity is achieved by depositing a layer of refractory metal over the gold phosphide interlayer.

Growing community of inventors

Cleveland Heights, OH, United States of America

Victor George Weizer