A thin-film solar module with a substrate and a layer structure applied thereon comprising a rear electrode layer, a front electrode layer, and an absorber layer arranged between the back electrode layer and the front electrode layer. Serially connected solar cells are formed in the layer region by patterning zones, having a rear electrode layer section. The layer region has at least one linear decoating region. The decoating region has an alternating sequence of optically transparent zones and electrode zones. The optically transparent zones are rear-electrode-layer-free and the electrode zones are absorber-layer-free and have a rear electrode layer section. The rear-electrode-layer-sections of at least one pair made up of one solar cell of one solar cell string and one solar cell of the other solar cell string are areally connected to one another by the rear-electrode-layer-section of at least one electrode zone.

A solar cell including: a silicon substrate; a back electrode; a doped silicon layer; an upper electrode, wherein the upper electrode includes a plurality of three-dimensional nanostructures extending along a same direction; an electrode lead, wherein a direction of the electrode lead intersects with the direction of the plurality of three-dimensional nanostructures; wherein the three-dimensional nanostructures includes a first rectangular structure, a second rectangular structure, and a triangular prism structure; the first rectangular structure, the second rectangular structure, and the triangular prism structure are stacked, a first width of a bottom surface of the triangular prism structure is equal to a second width of a top surface of the second rectangular structure, and is greater than a third width of a top surface of the first rectangular structure, materials of the first rectangular structure and the triangular prism structure are metal.

There is disclosed a transferable composition being applicable to a membrane serving to transfer a pattern of the composition to an intended substrate. The transferable composition comprises a swellable polymer swelled by a swelling agent and particles dispersed therein. Methods of preparing the composition, applying it to a transfer membrane as a pattern, and transferring the pattern to a substrate, as well as articles made thereby, are also provided. The transferred patterns may serve a decorative and/or functional purpose and the transferable compositions may accordingly include decorative and/or functional particles. When the functional particles are or can be rendered electrically conductive, a pattern formed therewith can be part of a conductive circuit and can serve, for example, for the manufacturing of a solar cell.

A photovoltaic cell includes a semiconductor element (20) formed from a direct semiconductor and a transparent biasing agent (28) overlying a first portion of the front face (22) of the semiconductor, the biasing agent producing a first depletion region (30) in the semiconductor element. A collector (40) directly contacts a second portion of the front face. The collector produces a second depletion region (44) in the semiconductor element. The collector (40) is out of direct conductive contact with the biasing agent (28) but in proximity to the biasing agent. A continuous region at least partially depleted of majority carriers extends between the first and second depletion regions at the front face of the semiconductor element, The continuous region may include overlapping portions of the first and second depletion regions (30,44), or may include an additional depletion region (160) formed by a charged dielectric (147).

The technology of this application relates to a cell assembly and a method for preparing a cell assembly. The cell assembly includes a first subcell, a second subcell adjacent to the first subcell, and a bottom electrode. Both the first subcell and the second subcell include a P-type layer and an N-type layer, and a light-harvesting layer located between the P-type layer and the N-type layer. The P-type layer of the first subcell is connected to the N-type layer of the second subcell by using the bottom electrode. A connection manner between subcells is provided. Compared with a current manner in which P1, P2, and P3 gaps are formed between subcells through cutting to implement interconnection, geometrical optical loss brought by interconnection between the subcells can be reduced.

A method of forming a high voltage optical transformer includes forming a via through a transparent carrier wafer, forming a conductive layer within the via, bonding a solid state lighting (SSL) package to a first side of the carrier wafer, and bonding a photovoltaic (PV) wafer to a second side of the carrier wafer opposite to the first side. The photovoltaic wafer may include an active area and a conductive area located outside of the active area that is in electrical contact with the conductive layer. The method further includes forming both an SSL contact with the solid state lighting package and a PV contact with the conductive layer on the same side of the carrier wafer.

A photoelectric converter including a crystalline silicon substrate having a light receiving surface including a smooth section and a rough surface section having surface roughness greater than the surface roughness of the smooth section and a light transmissive inorganic film so provided as to overlap with the smooth section and the rough surface section, and the film thickness t1 of a portion of the inorganic film that is the portion where the inorganic film overlaps with the rough surface section is smaller than the film thickness t2 of a portion of the inorganic film that is the portion where the inorganic film overlaps with the smooth section. The arithmetic average roughness of the rough surface section is preferably greater than or equal to 0.1 μm.

An energy conversion device for conversion of various energy forms into electricity. The energy forms may be chemical, photovoltaic or thermal gradients. The energy conversion device has a first and second electrode. A substrate is present that has a porous semiconductor or dielectric layer placed thereover. The substrate itself can be planar, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional, and possess internal and external surfaces. These substrates may be rigid, flexible and/or foldable. The porous semiconductor or dielectric layer can be a nano-engineered structure. A porous conductor material is placed on at least a portion of the porous semiconductor or dielectric layer such that at least some of the porous conductor material enters the nano-engineered structure of the porous semiconductor or dielectric layer, thereby forming an intertwining region.

A solar cell for a solar cell array with one or more grid on a surface thereof, wherein electrical connections are made to the grids in a plurality of locations positioned around the solar cell; and the electrical connections extend to one or more conductors located under the solar cell. The conductors located under the solar cell are buried within a substrate, and each of the conductors comprises a low resistance conducting path that distributes current from the solar cell. The conductors are loops, U-shaped, or have only up or down pathways. The solar cell comprises a full cell that has four cropped corners and the locations are in the cropped corners.

Provided in one embodiment of the present invention is a solar cell upper electrode which is positioned on a photoactive layer and which includes a conductive polymer layer, wherein ionic liquid comes in contact with the surface of the conductive polymer layer so as to the post-treated, and, due to the post-treatment, an ion-exchange reaction occurs only in the upper area of the conductive upper electrode according to an embodiment of the present invention is not gelated so as to improve electrode performance, and does not oxidize a photoactive layer positioned under the electrode so as to be usable as an upper electrode, and thus can improve the performance of a solar cell to which the electrode is applied.