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US 9,070,803 B2Granted
Nanostructured solar cell
AssigneeMolecular Imprints, Inc.
InventorsShuqiang Yang, Michael N. Miller, Mohamed M. Hilali, Fen Wan, Gerard M. Schmid, Liang Wang, Sidlgata V. Sreenivasan, Frank Y. Xu
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Abstract
Systems and methods for fabrication of nanostructured solar cells having arrays of nanostructures are described, including nanostructured solar cells having a repeating pattern of pyramid nanostructures, providing for low cost thin-film solar cells with improved PCE.
Claims4
A solar cell comprising:
- a substrate;
- a patterned layer positioned in direct contact with the substrate, the patterned layer comprising:
- i) a repeating pattern of pyramid nanostructures extending away from the substrate such that there is a distance between bases of directly adjacent pyramid nanostructures;
- and
- ii) a residual layer positioned between the pyramid nanostructures and the substrate, wherein the intersections between a surface of the residual layer and the bases of the pyramid nanostructures are rounded, and
- a first conducting material positioned in direct contact with the patterned layer and coincides with the repeating pattern of pyramid nanostructures;
- a semiconductor layer positioned on the first conducting material and a second conducting material positioned in direct contact with the semiconductor layer, wherein the semiconductor layer and second conducting material coincide with the repeating pattern of pyramid nanostructures and wherein the semiconductor layer comprises in the order of stacking:
- an amorphous silicon p-type layer;
- an amorphous silicon intrinsic layer;
- and
- an amorphous silicon n-type layer.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.