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US 7,115,811 B2Granted
Semiconductor body forming a solar cell with a bypass diode
AssigneeEmcore Corporation
InventorsFrank Ho, Milton Y. Yeh, Chaw-Long Chu, Peter A. IIes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for protecting a solar cell. The solar cell includes first solar cell portion. The first solar cell portion includes at least one junction and at least one solar cell contact on a backside of the first solar cell portion. At least one bypass diode portion is epitaxially grown on the first solar cell portion. The bypass diode has at least one contact. An interconnect couples the solar cell contact to the diode contact.
Claims44
A solar cell comprising:
- an integral semiconductor body having a sequence of layers of semiconductor material, including a first region in which the sequence of layers of semiconductor material forms at least one cell of a multijunction solar cell, and a second region in which the sequence of layers forms a bypass diode to pass current when the solar cell is shaded, and
- a metal layer deposited over said body that interconnects a contact of said multijunction solar cell to a contact of said bypass diode;
- wherein the sequence of layers in the first region and the sequence of layers in the second region are identical, with each layer in the first region having the same composition and thickness as the corresponding layer in the second region.
A solar cell comprising:
- an integral semiconductor body having a sequence of layers of semiconductor material, including a first region in which the sequence of layers of semiconductor material forms at least one cell of a multijunction solar cell having a contact of first polarity and a contact of a second polarity;
- and
- a second region spaced apart from said first region in which the sequence of layers in said second regionforms a bypass diode having a contact of a first polarity and a contact of second polarity, said diode functioning to pass current when the solar cell is shaded, wherein the contact of first polarity of said solar cell is connected to said contact of second polarity of said bypass diode,
- wherein the sequence of layers in the first region and the sequence of layers in the second region are identical, with each layer in the first region having the same composition and thickness as the corresponding layer in the second region.
1 more element
A solar cell comprising:
- an integral semiconductor body having a sequence of layers of semiconductor material, including a first region in which the sequence of layers of semiconductor material forms at least one cell of a multijunction solar cell;
- and
- a second region spaced apart from said first region in which the sequence of layers forms a bypass diode connected so that when the solar cell is forward biased, the bypass diode is reverse biased, and when the solar cell is reverse biased, the bypass diode is forward biased, wherein
- wherein the sequence of layers in the first region and the sequence of layers in the second region are identical, with each layer in the first region having the same composition and thickness as the corresponding layer in the second region.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.