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:
Jun. 26, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 15, 1999
Makoto Higashikawa, Kyotanabe, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A photovoltaic element has a first conduction type semiconductor layer,of the n,-type or the p,-type, an intrinsic semiconductor layer,of the i-type, and a second conduction type semiconductor layer,of the p,-type or the n,-type successively stacked on a substrate,. When a unit,is defined as a set of a first microcrystal silicon base semiconductor layer,and a second microcrystal silicon base semiconductor layer,of mutually different absorption coefficients at 800 nm, the i-type layer,includes at least two such units. This makes it possible to provide the photovoltaic element that can absorb the light efficiently with avoiding the light degradation phenomenon (Staebler-Wronski effect) specific to amorphous semiconductors and that has good electric characteristics (mobility &mgr;, lifetime &tgr;) and the like.