Loading patent…
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsStephen W. Bedell, Harold J. Hovel, Daniel A. Inns, Jee H. Kim, Alexander Reznicek, Devendra K. Sadana
Estimating the term…
A photovoltaic device includes a composition modulated semiconductor structure including a p-doped first semiconductor material layer, a first intrinsic compositionally-graded semiconductor material layer, an intrinsic semiconductor material layer, a second intrinsic compositionally-graded semiconductor layer, and an n-doped first semiconductor material layer. The first and second intrinsic compositionally-graded semiconductor material layers include an alloy of a first semiconductor material having a greater band gap width and a second semiconductor material having a smaller band gap with, and the concentration of the second semiconductor material increases toward the intrinsic semiconductor material layer in the first and second compositionally-graded semiconductor material layers. The photovoltaic device provides an open circuit voltage comparable to that of the first semiconductor material, and a short circuit current comparable to that of the second semiconductor material, thereby increasing the efficiency of the photovoltaic device.
A photovoltaic device comprising a stack, from top to bottom, of a first intrinsic compositionally-graded semiconductor layer including a first compositionally-graded alloy of a first semiconductor material and a second semiconductor material, an intrinsic semiconductor material layer including at least said second semiconductor material, and a second intrinsic compositionally-graded semiconductor layer including a second compositionally-graded alloy of said first semiconductor material and said second semiconductor material, wherein an atomic concentration of said second semiconductor material monotonically decreases with distance from an interface with said intrinsic semiconductor layer in said first compositionally-graded alloy and said second compositionally-graded alloy.
A method of forming a photovoltaic device comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.