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. 26, 1978
Filed:
Jul. 28, 1977
Applicant:
Inventors:
David E Carlson, Yardley, PA (US);
Christopher R Wronski, Princeton, NJ (US);
Assignee:
RCA Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
357 30 ; 357 23 ; 357-6 ;
Abstract
In a photovoltaic semiconductor device, an electrically insulating layer is between and in contact with a body of amorphous silicon fabricated by a glow discharge in silane and a metallic film of a metal capable of forming a surface barrier junction with the amorphous silicon body. The insulating layer is of such a relatively thin thickness that charge carriers are capable of tunneling through the insulating layer. The insulating layer has been found to increase the open circuit voltage of the photovoltaic device without adversely affecting the short circuit current density of the device.