Thin ribbon of semiconductor material

Abstract

A novel thin ribbon of semiconductor has a polycrystalline structure composed more than 50% of grains having a grain size of more than 5 .mu.m, a thickness of 5 to 200 .mu.m, a sufficient flexibility to be windable on a pipe having a diameter of 34 mm, and malleability. The semiconductor is composed of p-type, i-type or n-type semiconductor material, and may be a two-layer composite formed of at least two elements so as to form a p-n type junction. The composition of the semiconductor material consists of pure silicon or silicon with an additional impurity element for improving the properties of the semiconductor, the additional impurity element being selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, oxygen, boron, arsenic, tellurium, tin, selenium, aluminum, gallium, indium, chromium, silver, iron and bismuth. A method of manufacturing a thin ribbon of a two-layer composite of semiconductor material is also disclosed. The flexible thin ribbon of semiconductor is available for use as/or in a semiconductor electronic device.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.