초록 ▼

A solar cell is disclosed with V-grooves which are series connected, but electrically isolated, indirect bandgap solar cells which are responsive to different light frequencies on both sides of a semi-insulating optically transparent substrate. The device has a very high conversion efficiency of app

A solar cell is disclosed with V-grooves which are series connected, but electrically isolated, indirect bandgap solar cells which are responsive to different light frequencies on both sides of a semi-insulating optically transparent substrate. The device has a very high conversion efficiency of approximately 40% and high open-circuit voltage and low series resistance. An exemplary structure in accordance with this disclosure has a series of silicon V-groove cells on one side and another series of GaAlAs V-groove cells on the other side. The cells are of generally trapezoidal cross-section. The difference between the characteristics of the Si cell and the GaAlAs cell is matched by control of the number of V-grooves.

대표청구항 ▼

A solar energy converter comprising: a first solar cell comprising first multiple p-n heterojunctions in association with a first type of optically active semiconductor material on one side of an insulating substrate; and a second solar cell comprising second multiple p-n heterojunctions in associat

A solar energy converter comprising: a first solar cell comprising first multiple p-n heterojunctions in association with a first type of optically active semiconductor material on one side of an insulating substrate; and a second solar cell comprising second multiple p-n heterojunctions in association with a second type of optically active semiconductor material on the opposite side of the insulating substrate; said first type of semiconductor material is GaAlAs, said second type of semiconductor material is Si, and said insulating substrate is semi-insulating GaP.