Solar cell made from amorphous superlattice material
AssigneeExxon Research & Engineering Co.
InventorsJ. Thomas Tiedje, Benjamin Abeles
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor device which includes an active region including a superlattice amorphous material wherein the energy gap has a predetermined value. A preferred embodiment of the device is a solar cell. In another embodiment of the present invention, the device is a tandem solar cell which includes a first active region including a superlattice material wherein the bandgap has a first predetermined value; a second active region including a second superlattice material wherein the bandgap has a second predetermined value different from said first predetermined value; a means for electrically interconnecting said first and second active regions such that current may flow between said first and second active regions.
Claims11
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a first photovoltaic cell which includes a first superlattice consisting essentially of a first multi-layered amorphous semiconductor material having a predetermined composition wherein the effective energy gap has a predetermined value which can be obtained by varying the thickness of the individual layers while maintaining said composition constant, said first superlattice material having an upper and lower surface, a first layer of n-doped amorphous semiconductor material forming a heterojunction with said lower surface, and a first layer of p-doped amorphous semiconductor material forming a heterojunction with said upper surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.