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. 24, 2003
Filed:
May. 22, 2002
Applicant:
Inventor:
Kunihide Tanaka, Irvine, CA (US);
Assignee:
Other;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 3/1048 ; H01L 3/1052 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 3/1048 ; H01L 3/1052 ;
Abstract
Solar cells operating in liquid have an increased operating efficiency resulting from two independent physical phenomena, an increase in output current from the solar cells from simply wetting the solar cells, and enhanced collection of light through refraction and inner reflection of light in the liquid. Dielectric liquids are found to increase output power efficiency of n/p junction solar cells and also function as a medium for optical concentration. The properties of dielectric liquid permit the construction of a solar cell panel with a suitable geometry for functioning as an optical concentrator.