HIGH EFFICIENCY SILICON-BASED SOLAR CELLS

• Main Authors: PRESTON, JOHN STEWART, KLEIMAN, RAFAEL NATHAN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 09.07.2009
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGYGENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE

The present invention relates to a system and method for generating high efficiency silicon-based photovoltaic cells such as solar cells. The solar cell of the present invention comprises a silicon substrate layer, a first buffer layer disposed on a first surface of the silicon substrate layer and a second buffer layer disposed on the opposing surface of the silicon substrate layer and a third buffer layer disposed directly on the first buffer layer, the first and second buffer layers being lattice mismatched to the silicon substrate layer, and a first device layer disposed on the third buffer layer and a second device layer disposed on the second buffer layer, the first and second device layers comprising at least one of Sb-based compounds, III-V compounds and II-VI compounds.