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. 07, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 31, 2001
Kenji Wada, Osaka, JP;
Yoshiyuki Nasuno, Osaka, JP;
Michio Kondo, Tsukuba-shi Ibaraki 305-0035, JP;
Akihisa Matsuda, Tsuchiura-shi Ibaraki 300-0842, JP;
Other;
Abstract
A solar cell substrate has irregularities on a surface which is in contact with a photo-electric conversion layer, and light is incident on the side of the irregularities. The height of the irregularities is set so that the root mean square height is in a range of 15 nm to 600 nm, and tan &thgr; is in a range of 0.10 to 0.30, where &thgr; is the angle of incline of the surface of the irregularities with respect to an average line of the irregularities. Light incident on the irregularities is scattered at the interface. This increases the optical path length and thus the quantity of light absorbed in the photo-electric conversion layer, resulting in improved efficiency. Additionally, the photo-electric conversion layer can be made thinner reducing deposit time and manufacturing cost. Further, collision of crystals is not incurred, thus preventing deterioration of photo-electric conversion efficiency which is caused by defects.