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US 4,398,054 AGranted
Compensated amorphous silicon solar cell incorporating an insulating layer
AssigneeChevron Research Company
InventorArun Madan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A P-I-N type compensated amorphous silicon solar cell which incorporates an insulating layer adjacent to the compensated intrinsic amorphous silicon layer.
Claims15
A solar cell comprising:
- an electrically conductive substrate;
- a layer of P-type conductivity hydrogenated amorphous silicon electrically contacting said substrate;
- a layer of photoactive compensated intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon contacting said P-type layer, said layer having a bandgap energy less than about 1.6 eV and incorporating N-type and P-type dopants in an amount sufficient to reduce the bandgap of the layer while maintaining a recombination lifetime which is greater than the transit time of holes and electrons out of said layer during the illumination of said layer by solar radiation;
- a layer of electrically insulating material contiguous to and deposited on said photoactive layer of compensated hydrogenated amorphous silicon;
- a layer of N-type conductivity hydrogenated amorphous silicon contacting said insulating layer;
- and
- means for electrically contacting said N-type layer.
4 more elements
A method of reflecting holes back into a photoactive compensated intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon layer in an amorphous silicon solar cell, said solar cell incorporating an N-type layer incident to solar radiation, said method comprising:
- incorporating suitable N-type and P-type dopants into the photoactive compensated intrinsic layer during the fabrication thereof in an amount sufficient to reduce the bandgap of said photoactive intrinsic region, said dopants being incorporated in an amount such that the recombination lifetime of holes and electrons is greater than the transit time of said holes and electrons out of said layer during the illumination of said intrinsic layer;
- and
- fabricating an insulating layer between the photoactive compensated layer and a layer of N-type conductivity hydrogenated amorphous silicon incident to solar radiation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.