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:
Sep. 19, 1978
Filed:
Jun. 20, 1977
Ronald L Bell, Woodside, CA (US);
Varian Associates, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A lens or mirror is employed to concentrate sunlight onto a photovoltaic cell. The cell employs a broad conductor around the periphery of its active surface, and narrow higher resistance conductor strips over the inner part of the surface. The cell and mirror are sized, positioned and shaped such that the image of the sun on the cell's surface is non-uniform, with a proportionately higher concentration of light falling near the periphery of the cell adjacent the peripheral conductors. Thus, the generated current is greater at the periphery, so that less energy is lost due to series resistance of the surface conductors, for more efficiency compared to a uniformly illuminated cell. The non-uniformity can conveniently be obtained by utilizing the natural spherical aberrations of a simple spherical mirror or lens. Also the cell can be positioned relatively close to the mirror outside the focal plane, so that the illuminated area on the cell is larger than the focused image of the sun in the focal plane. Thus, for given diameters of cell and mirror, the arrangement is more compact, and much less sensitive to inaccuracies in mirror curvature.