190 results about "Tandem solar cell" patented technology

A method of fabricating on a semiconductor substrate bifacial tandem solar cells with semiconductor subcells having a lower bandgap than the substrate bandgap on one side of the substrate and with subcells having a higher bandgap than the substrate on the other including, first, growing a lower bandgap subcell on one substrate side that uses only the same periodic table group V material in the dislocation-reducing grading layers and bottom subcells as is present in the substrate and after the initial growth is complete and then flipping the substrate and growing the higher bandgap subcells on the opposite substrate side which can be of different group V material.

A photovoltaic device includes a substrate having at least two surfaces and a multilayered film disposed on at least a portion of at least one surface of the substrate. Elongated nanostructures are disposed on the multilayered film. The device incorporates a top layer of the multilayered film contacting the elongated nanostructures that is a tunnel junction. The device has at least one layer deposited over the elongated nanostructures defining a portion of a photoactive junction. A solar panel includes at least one photovoltaic device. The solar panel isolates each such devices from its surrounding atmospheric environment and permits the generation of electrical power.

A two-junction solar cell has a bottom solar cell junction of crystalline silicon, and a top solar cell junction of gallium phosphide. A three (or more) junction solar cell has bottom solar cell junctions of silicon, and a top solar cell junction of gallium phosphide. The resulting solar cells exhibit improved extended temperature operation.

A solar cell structure and a method for fabricating the solar cell structure is provided, where the cell structure includes a plurality of solar cells, wherein each of the solar cells is separated from each adjacent solar cell via at least one of a tunnel junction or a resonant tunneling structure interface, wherein each of the plurality of solar cells is at least partially constructed from a semiconductor material, wherein the semiconductor material has an energy band gap that harnesses photons having energies in a predetermined energy range which is responsive to its energy gap, and wherein each of the plurality of solar cells includes at least one of a p-n junction, an n-p junction, or a Schottky interface, and wherein each of the plurality of solar cells is configured to harness energies in a different solar spectral energy range than the other of the plurality of solar cells.

A power supply unit composed so that outputs from a plurality of cells having different output characteristics are output from common terminals and so that a decrease in energy efficiency caused by connecting the cells is suppressed to the utmost is provided. After outputs of a plurality of cells 10a to 10c having different output voltages and output currents are adjusted to have the same output voltage value, the outputs are output to terminals 4 and 5 so as to match the parallel connection. Since the outputs of the cells are output in parallel, a cell outputting a low current does not restrict the output currents in the overall power supply unit, unlike the series connection. Moreover, since the outputs, which are adjusted to have the same voltage, are connected, problems such as flowback do not occur. In the case where the present invention is applied to a tandem solar cell, a light-absorbing wavelength characteristic can be assigned to each tandem photoelectric transducer so that solar light is utilized at the maximum efficiency, and the photoelectric energy conversion efficiency does not decrease even when the wavelength distribution of solar light deviates from the standard one.

A tandem solar cell with graphene interlayer and method of making are disclosed. The graphene interlayer can serve as a recombination contact to a pair of photoactive subcells electrically connected in series or as a common electrode to a pair of photoactive subcells electrically connected in parallel. The highly conducting, transparent nature, and easily modifiable chemical and electrical properties of a graphene interlayer enable tunable energy matching to the photoactive subcells. Using different photoactive subcells that can harvest light across the solar spectrum results in a tandem solar cell that can achieve high power conversion efficiency.

The present invention relates to thin film solar cell structures and methods of manufacturing them, particularly tandem cell structures and components thereof. In one aspect there is provided a polycrystalline thin film solar cell structure that is semi-transparent and allows a predetermined wavelength range of light to pass therethrough, in which a bottom semi-transparent conductive layer includes at least one of a ruthenium oxide, an osmium oxide and an iridium oxide. In another aspect there is provided a tandem cell structure in which a top cell bottom contact layer includes at least one of a ruthenium oxide, an osmium oxide and an iridium oxide. In a preferred aspect, the tandem cell structure contains a single contact layer between the absorber layer of the top cell and the absorber layer of the bottom cell. In a particular aspect, this single contact layer is a ruthenium oxide layer.

Semiconductor ink is disclosed for use in printing thin film solar cell absorber layer. The semiconductor ink is particularly useful in fabricating multi junction tandem solar cell wherein a high bandgap absorber layer as the top cell and a lower band gap absorber layer as the bottom cell. The ink contains ingredients of IB-IIIA-VIA compound with micron-sized semiconductor as the main building “bricks” and nano-sized semiconductor as the binder to fulfill the formation of smooth semiconductive film with micron-sized crystal grain size. Thus formed ink can be used in direct printing for the fabrication of low cost high performance solar cells.

A nanocomposite material that is both transparent and electrically conductive is provided. The nanocomposite comprises a nanoporous matrix, preferably formed from nanoparticles, that is internally coated with a transparent conductive material to define an internal conductive path within the nanocomposite. The nanocomposite is substantially transparent over a defined spectral range that preferably includes at least a portion of the visible spectrum, and preferably comprises pores with a mean diameter of less than approximately 25 nm. A bilayer may be formed by depositing a layer of a transparent conductive material on top of a nanocomposite layer, or by depositing a second layer of a nanocomposite having different optical properties. The nanocomposites formed using a combination of sequential and / or concurrent deposition techniques are correspondingly discrete and / or continuously varying structures. Multilayer structures, such as photonic crystal reflectors, may be formed by depositing multiple bilayers, and integrated into devices such as tandem solar cells.

A method of fabricating on a semiconductor substrate bifacial tandem solar cells with semiconductor subcells having a lower bandgap than the substrate bandgap on one side of the substrate and with subcells having a higher bandgap than the substrate on the other including, first, growing a lower bandgap subcell on one substrate side that uses only the same periodic table group V material in the dislocation-reducing grading layers and bottom subcells as is present in the substrate and after the initial growth is complete and then flipping the substrate and growing the higher bandgap subcells on the opposite substrate side which can be of different group V material.

The invention discloses a solar cell module with high conversion efficiency, which belongs to the technical field of solar energy materials and devices. A solar cell module with high conversion efficiency, including ultra-white low-iron tempered glass arranged in sequence from top to bottom and packaged as a whole, a first EVA layer, solar cells connected in series, a second EVA layer, a third A reflective layer is arranged between the EVA layer and the back plate, the second EVA layer and the third EVA layer, and regularly arranged V-shaped grooves are arranged on the surface of the reflective layer. This V-groove makes the component more reflective. The inner angle of the V-shaped groove is 120°-138°. This can ensure that when the light reflected by the two surfaces of the V-shaped groove reaches the glass surface, its incident angle is greater than the critical angle and is totally reflected to be absorbed by the cell, instead of being refracted into the air and lost.

A method is provided for preparing a thin film of perovskite material having an adjustable bandgap. The method forms a thin film of material having the formula BX2, where anionic part X is a halide, and where the cation B is lead (Pb), tin (Sn), or germanium (Ge). A solution is formed of materials with the formulas A1X and A2X, where cation A1 is formamidinium, and where cation A2 is an organic cation having a larger size larger than a methylammonium cation. The method deposits the solution over the BX2 thin film, and forms a perovskite material having the formula A11-YA2yBX3. For example, the A2 cation may be an ammonium cation such as ethylammonium, guanidinium, dimethylammonium, acetamidinium, or substituted derivatives of the above-mentioned ammonium cations. In one aspect, the perovskite material A1BX3 may be formamidinium iodide (FAI), and A2BX3 may be ethylammonium iodide (EtAI). Tandem solar cells are also provided.

Two methods to achieve a tandem solar cell are disclosed. The first involves stacking together two or more complete polymer solar cells, each having a polymer blend active layer. The individual solar cells can be connected either in series or in parallel. In the second method, two individual polymer solar cells are first constructed and then laminated together to form a tandem structure. The lamination can be metal-free, thus resulting in translucent polymer solar cells.

Architectures for tandem solar cell including two thin films forming a top layer and a bottom layer. Such cells can be bi-facial. Exemplary materials used for the top layer are CIGS (CGS), perovskites (Sn and Ge), amorphous silicon (a-Si), copper oxide, tin sulfide, CZTS and III-V materials. For the bottom layer an inorganic film such as either silicon or germanium may be used. In general, the architecture includes of a glass, plastic or metal substrate and a buffer layer, either an oxide insulator or nitride conductor.

The invention provides a tandem polymer solar cell with a parallel structure. In the solar cell, metals with a high work function such as gold and sliver are taken as a semitransparent anode to extract holes. A p-type metal oxide molybdenum trioxide or tungsten oxide is taken as a hole transport layer at two sides of the anode for connecting an upper sub-cell photosensitive layer and a lower sub-cell photosensitive layer so as to construct a built-in electric field and improve the collection efficiency of a current carrier. The photosensitive layers of an upper sub-cell and a lower sub-cell in the tandem cell are respectively a mixture consisting of a conjugated polymer and a fullerene derivative with different absorption ranges. The two sub-cells are connected in parallel, and short circuit current density of the tandem solar cell is the sum of the short circuit current density of the upper sub-cell and the short circuit current density of the lower sub-cell. By conjugated polymers with the different absorption ranges, the tandem polymer thin film solar cell effectively improves the active sunlight absorption and realizes that the short circuit current is effectively increased to 15 milliampere / square centimeter, thus increasing the maximum energy conversion efficiency of the polymer thin film solar cell to 3.36%.

A tandem solar cell includes a top solar cell and a bottom solar cell. The top solar cell and the bottom solar cell each have a respective front surface and a rear surface, with the respective front surfaces being adapted for facing a radiation source during use. The top solar cell is arranged with its rear surface overlying the front surface of the bottom solar cell. The top solar cell includes a photovoltaic absorber layer with a bandgap greater than that of crystalline silicon. The bottom solar cell includes a crystalline silicon substrate. On at least a portion of the front surface of the bottom solar cell a passivating layer stack is disposed which includes a thin dielectric film and a secondary layer of either selective carrier extracting material or polysilicon. The thin dielectric film is arranged between the silicon substrate and the secondary layer.

Manipulation of the passivation ligands of colloidal quantum dots and use in QD electronics. A multi-step electrostatic process is described which creates bare QDs, followed by the formation of QD superlattice via electric and thermal stimulus. Colloidal QDs with original long ligands (i.e. oleic acid) are atomized, and loaded into a special designed tank to be washed, followed by another atomization step before entering the doping station. The final step is the deposition of bare QDs onto substrate and growth of QD superlattice. The method permits the formation of various photonic devices, such as single junction and tandem solar cells based on bare QD superlattice, photodetectors, and LEDs. The devices include a piezoelectric substrate with an electrode, and at least one layer of bare quantum dots comprising group IV-VI elements on the electrode, where the bare quantum dots have been stripped of outer-layer ligands.

The invention discloses an antimony sulfide / silicon tandem solar cell and a preparation method thereof.The antimony sulfide / silicon tandem solar cell comprises a crystalline silicon bottom cell, an antimony sulfide thin-film top cell and a middle composite connection structure layer, wherein the middle composite connection structure layer comprises a silicon dioxide passivated layer, a TCO (transparent conductive oxide) layer and a high-work-function transition metal oxide layer sequentially from bottom to top, and the silicon dioxide passivated layer contains a metal nanoparticle array.The preparation method includes preparing the metal nanoparticle array, the silicon dioxide passivated layer, the TCO layer and the high-work-function transition metal oxide layer on the surface of the crystalline silicon cell sequentially; preparing the antimony sulfide thin-film solar cell on the surface of the transition metal oxide layer.The preparation method of the antimony sulfide / silicon tandem solar cell is less in material consumption, low in cost, capable of applying existing mature technologies and equipment to production and beneficial to popularization and application of the production technologies.

Perovskite-containing solar cells are described herein. An inverted perovskite solar includes an anode substrate, a photoactive layer including a perovskite, a hole transport layer disposed between the anode substrate and the photoactive layer, an electron transport layer, a metal cathode layer, and an interlayer disposed between the electron transport layer and the metal cathode layer. A tandem solar cell includes a first sub-cell, a second sub-cell, and an interconnecting layer disposed between the first sub-cell and the second sub-cell. The first sub cell includes a perovskite layer having a thickness of 50 to 200 nanometers. The second sub-cell includes a photoactive layer and an interlayer disposed on the photoactive layer. The interlayers and the interconnecting layer each include a fullerpyrrolidine having a structure as defined herein.

The invention relates to a thin-film amorphous silicon N-type crystalline silicon heterojunction tandem solar cell, which comprises an N-type crystalline silicon matrix, wherein a back-side amorphous silicon intrinsic layer with the thickness of 2 to 10nm is deposited on the back side of the N-type crystalline silicon matrix; an N-type microcrystalline silicon layer with the thickness of 5 to 15nm is deposited on the passivated back side of the back-side amorphous silicon intrinsic layer; a front-side first amorphous silicon intrinsic layer with the thickness of 2 to 10nm is deposited on the front side of the N-type crystalline silicon matrix; a P-type microcrystalline silicon layer with the thickness of 10 to 20nm is deposited on the passivated front side of the front-side first amorphous silicon intrinsic layer; and an N-type amorphous silicon layer with the thickness of 5 to 15nm, a front-side second amorphous silicon intrinsic layer with the thickness of 50 to 200nm and a P-type amorphous silicon layer with the thickness of 10 to 20nm are deposited on the front side of the P-type microcrystalline silicon layer in turn. By the solar cell, the thickness of an amorphous silicon intrinsic film can be reduced, and the utilization rate of sunlight can be improved; and therefore, the efficiency of the solar cell is improved.

The invention relates to the field of solar cells, and particularly discloses a tandem solar cell, which comprises a top cell unit of a perovskite cell, a bottom cell unit of a silicon cell and a middle layer located between the top cell unit and the bottom cell unit. The chemical formula for the perovskite material in the perovskite cell is: [(NH2CHNH2)1-a(CH3NH3)a]Pb[I1-xBrx]3 or [(NH2CHNH2)1-bCsb]Pb[I1-xBrx]3, and 0.3< / =x< / =0.5, 0.3< / =a< / =0.5 and 0.1< / =b< / =0.5. According to the above tandem solar cell, band gaps of the top perovskite cell and the bottom silicon cell are matched, the problem of current matching between top and bottom cells can be well solved, and the cell efficiency can be improved. The invention also discloses a method of manufacturing the tandem solar cell.

The invention provides an efficient copper indium gallium selenide / perovskite series solar cell. The four-terminal series solar cell comprises a semitransparent planar heterojunction perovskite solar cell and a copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cell which are connected in series. The series solar cell can overcome the shortcoming that the perovskite solar call cannot absorb near-infrared light; the efficient copper indium gallium selenide / perovskite series solar cell can effectively absorb ultraviolet light, visible light and near infrared light, so that the solar cell efficiency can be improved; and a new thought for the final commercialization of perovskite is provided.

The invention relates to the field of solar cells and particularly relates to a tandem solar cell. The tandem solar cell sequentially comprises a top cell unit, a middle layer and a bottom cell unit, wherein a chamber transmission layer of the top cell unit is a non stoichiometri-ratio nickel oxide, and the bottom cell unit is a N-type double face silicon cell. According to the tandem solar cell, the top cell unit employs the novel chamber transmission layer, the bottom cell unit employs the N-type double face silicon cell, the top and bottom cells are made to be in matching, a short circuit current of the tandem solar cell is further improved, and thereby higher efficiency of the tandem solar cell is acquired. The invention further discloses a manufacturing method of the tandem solar cell.

There is disclosed an organic photovoltaic device comprising two or more organic photoactive regions located between a first electrode and a second electrode, wherein each of the organic photoactive regions comprise a donor, and an acceptor, and wherein the organic photovoltaic device comprises at least one exciton blocking layer, and at least one charge recombination layer, or charge transfer layer between the two or more photoactive regions. It has been discovered that a high open circuit voltage can been obtained for organic tandem solar cells according to this disclosure. Methods of making and methods of using are also disclosed.

The use of rare-earth (RE and O, N, P) based materials to transition between two different semiconductor materials and enable up and / or down conversion of incident radiation is disclosed. Rare earth based oxides, nitrides and phosphides provide a wide range of lattice spacing enabling, compressive, tensile or stress-free lattice matching with Group IV, III-V, and Group II-VI compounds.

The invention relates to the technical field of solar cells, in particular to a tandem solar cell and a manufacturing method. The tandem solar cell comprises at least one upper cell unit and a bottom cell unit, wherein the top of the upper cell unit and the bottom of the bottom cell unit are provided with electrodes; the upper cell unit comprises an n-type substrate and a tunnel junction formed on the n-type substrate; the tunnel junction consists of an extremely highly-doped p-gallium arsenide or n-type gallium arsenide thin film; and a metal contact layer also can be arranged between the upper cell unit and the bottom cell unit. In the tandem solar cell, on one hand, a p-type substrate of the upper cell unit is changed into the n-type substrate to greatly improve the transmission efficiency of light rays; and on the other hand, anti-configuration is performed by introducing a tunnel junction structure to solve the problem of growth material lattice mismatching. Two dual-junction cell units are combined to form the four-junction solar cell in a vertical integration way by the metal contact layer to realize relatively higher photoelectric conversion efficiency.

An electro-optic device includes a first electrode, a second electrode spaced apart from the first electrode, and an active layer of organic semiconducting material between the first electrode and the second electrode. The active layer includes a quasi-bilayer in which a first plurality molecules from a first layer of active material is interpenetrated by a second plurality of molecules from a second layer of active material formed on the first layer. The first and second pluralities of molecules provide donor-acceptor pairs such that the quasi-bilayer has at least a portion that is a bulk heterojunction active layer. Each of the first plurality of molecules has a long axis that is longer than corresponding transverse axes and the long axis is substantially aligned along a common direction such that the active layer is more sensitive to a first polarization of incident light than a second polarization of the incident light, wherein the first polarization and the second polarization are orthogonal polarization components of the light.

A method of depositing and crystallizing materials on a substrate is disclosed. In a particular embodiment, the method may include creating a plasma having deposition-related species and energy-carrying species. During a first time period, no bias voltage is applied to the substrate, and species are deposited on the substrate via plasma deposition. During a second time period, a voltage is applied to the substrate, which attracts ions to and into the deposited species, thereby causing the deposited layer to crystallize. This process can be repeated until an adequate thickness is achieved. In another embodiment, the bias voltage or bias pulse duration can be varied to change the amount of crystallization that occurs. In another embodiment, a dopant may be used to dope the deposited layers.

A method of making a non-toxic perovskite / inorganic thin-film tandem solar cell including the steps of depositing a textured oxide buffer layer on an inexpensive substrate, depositing a metal-inorganic film from a eutectic alloy on the buffer layer; and depositing perovskite elements on the metal-inorganic film, thus forming a perovskite layer based on a metal from the metal-inorganic film, incorporating the metal into the perovskite layer.