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US 2011/0079270 A1Published application
Concentrator photovoltaic cell
AssigneeQuantaSol Limited
InventorThomas N. D. Tibbits
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
There is disclosed a concentrator solar cell, having one or more radially elongate bus bars extending into a central region of the cell for collecting current from gridlines. Each bus bar terminates in a separate bond pad region at a periphery of the device.
Claims37
A concentrator photovoltaic cell comprising:
- a front plane through which light passes into the photovoltaic cell for the generation of a photocurrent;
- a plurality of conductive gridlines disposed across the front plane so as to communicate the photocurrent with the front plane;
- a plurality of separate conductive busbars disposed across the front plane and coupled to communicate the photocurrent with the gridlines, wherein each busbar comprises a bondpad region disposed at a periphery of the front plane for coupling the photocurrent to an external load, and wherein each busbar is elongate in a radial direction and extends into a central region of the front plane.
A solar photovoltaic system comprising:
- a photovoltaic cell;
- and
- an optical concentrator arranged to deliver sunlight having a concentrated intensity of at least one hundred suns to said photovoltaic cell;
- wherein the photovoltaic cell comprises:
- a front plane through which light passes into the photovoltaic cell for the generation of a photocurrent;
- a plurality of conductive gridlines disposed across the front plane so as to communicate the photocurrent with the front plane;
- a plurality of separate conductive busbars disposed across the front plane and coupled to communicate the photocurrent with the gridlines, wherein each busbar comprises a bondpad region disposed at a periphery of the front plane for coupling the photocurrent to an external load, and wherein each busbar is elongate in a radial direction and extends into a central region of the front plane.
4 more elements
A solar photovoltaic system comprising:
- a photovoltaic cell having a front surface with an area of less than 200 mm2;
- and
- an optical concentrator arranged to receive incident sunlight and to deliver the sunlight concentrated by a factor of at least fifty to a front plane of the cell whereby the photovoltaic cell generates an electrical current;
- wherein the photovoltaic cell further comprises:
- a plurality of metallic gridline structures disposed at the front plane of the cell that are arranged to carry the electrical current into or out of the front plane;
- and
- one or more separate radially elongate metallic busbars also disposed at the front plane of the cell and arranged to carry the electrical current to or from the gridline structures;
- wherein each busbar extends from a peripheral region into a central region of the front surface of the cell.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.