PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULE

• Main Authors: Rudin Arthur, Prabhu Gopal, Subbaraman Venkateswaran, Tanner David, Ramesh Prashant, Chari Arvind, Chandrashekar Vishal, de la Fuente Vornbrock Alejandro, Murali Venkatesan, Xu Dong, Babayan Steve, Brainard Robert
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 05.10.2017
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; GENERATION; GENERATION OF ELECTRIC POWER BY CONVERSION OF INFRA-REDRADIATION, VISIBLE LIGHT OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, E.G. USINGPHOTOVOLTAIC [PV] MODULES; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

A photovoltaic module has a flexible backing substrate, a plurality of photovoltaic cells, and an electrical conduit. The photovoltaic cells are mounted on the backing substrate. Each photovoltaic cell has a metallic article, the metallic article including a plurality of electroformed elements comprising a cell interconnection element integral with a continuous grid having a plurality of first elements intersecting a plurality of second elements. The electroformed elements are interconnected and integral, with the continuous grid in contact with the light-incident surface of the photovoltaic cell. The cell interconnection element extends beyond the light-incident surface and couples the continuous grid to a neighboring photovoltaic cell. The electrical conduit has a flexible strip of electrically conductive material. The electrical conduit electrically couples the cell interconnection element of a first photovoltaic cell in the plurality of photovoltaic cells to a neighboring second photovoltaic cell in the plurality of photovoltaic cells.