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:
May. 30, 1995
Filed:
Mar. 24, 1993
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A photovoltaic device has a transparent substrate, a transparent electrode layer, a photovoltaic layer, and a back electrode which are stacked in this order. The photovoltaic layer has a p-type a-SiC layer provided on the transparent electrode layer, a buffer layer provided on the p-type a-SiC layer, a photosensitive layer provided on the buffer layer, and an n-type semiconductor layer provided on the photosensitive layer. The buffer layer is an a-SiC layer first deposited on the p-type a-SiC layer and then subjected to a plasma treatment. The plasma treatment should be carried out using a gas selected from a group consisting of hydrogen (H.sub.2), Argon (Ar), Helium (He), Neon (Ne), Krypton (Kr), and Xenon (Xe). In the device, the buffer layer may be composed of a microcrystalline SiC layer or an amorphous SiC layer. The buffer layer may have a thickness ranging from about 10 .ANG. to about 100 .ANG., and may be formed by a plasma-CVD process.