The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 29, 1977
Filed:
Oct. 15, 1975
Takeshi Matsushita, Sagamihara, JA;
Takayoshi Mamine, Tokyo, JA;
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JA;
Abstract
A semiconductor photovoltaic device is comprised of 2n layers of alternating p-type and n-type material having respective PN junctions between adjacent layers, wherein n is an integer greater than 1. Each layer has a thickness which is less than the diffusion length of a minority carrier therein. The PN junctions are excited by light which is incident on the device to thereby cause majority carriers to be accumulated in the respective layers so as to forward bias all of the PN junctions. As a result of this forward biasing, minority carriers are injected across a first PN junction fr0m one layer into an adjacent layer and then traverse the next PN junction into the next succeeding layer. The photovoltaic device thus is adapted to supply a voltage and a current to a load.