A solar cell comprising a semiconductor substrate, first semiconductor layers, second semiconductor layers, a band-like first base electrode stacked on the first semiconductor layer, a band-like second base electrode stacked on the second semiconductor layer, a first electrode insulation stacked on the first base electrodes, a second electrode insulation stacked on the second base electrodes, an intermediate insulation stacked on a region of the first semiconductor layer in which the first base electrode is not stacked, and a region of the second semiconductor layer in which the second base electrode is not stacked, a first current collector stacked to span the second electrode insulation and the intermediate insulation, and a second current collector stacked to span the first electrode insulation and the intermediate insulation.

Technology for converting electricity generated by photovoltaic cells to AC or DC output power is disclosed. In some examples of the disclosed technology, a zonal power inverter has a plurality of voltage converters, the outputs of the voltage converters being connected in series and being electrically isolated from one another except for their output terminals being connected in series. The power inverter can further comprise a DC/AC converter coupled to a positive output terminal of one of the voltage converters. In some examples, an isolated multi-junction photovoltaic cell includes a plurality of photosensitive semiconductor active layers, each of the active layers being electrically isolated from the other active layers, and formed from a respective material having a different band gap than the other active layers. In some examples, the multi-junction photovoltaic cell is coupled to the input of the zonal power inverter.

A photovoltaic device is presented. The photovoltaic device includes a layer stack; and an absorber layer is disposed on the layer stack. The absorber layer comprises selenium, wherein an atomic concentration of selenium varies across a thickness of the absorber layer. The photovoltaic device is substantially free of a cadmium sulfide layer.

A photovoltaic device includes a substrate, a semiconductor stack and a transparent tunnel junction. The semiconductor stack includes an n-type layer selected from a first transparent conductive oxide layer, or a window layer, or both; and a p-type absorber layer disposed on the n-type layer, wherein the absorber layer consists essentially of CdSe.sub.xTe.sub.(1-x), wherein x is from 1 to about 40 at. %. The transparent tunnel junction comprises a transparent interface layer of Cd.sub.yZn.sub.(1-y)Te doped to be p+type, and a transparent contact layer doped to be n+type, and the interface layer is disposed between the p-type absorber layer and the transparent contact layer. In bifacial embodiments, the tunnel junction forms a transparent back contact and electrode; and in multi-junction embodiments, the tunnel junction forms a diode-like connector between top and bottom cells. The transparent contact layer may comprise tin oxide or zinc oxide doped with aluminum, fluorine or indium.

Techniques for mechanically stabilizing metallic nanowire meshes using encapsulation are provided. In one aspect, a method for forming a mechanically-stabilized metallic nanowire mesh is provided which includes the steps of: forming the metallic nanowire mesh on a substrate; and coating the metallic nanowire mesh with a metal oxide that encapsulates the metallic nanowire mesh to mechanically-stabilize the metallic nanowire mesh which permits the metallic nanowire mesh to remain conductive at temperatures greater than or equal to about 600 C. A mechanically-stabilized metallic nanowire mesh is also provided.

The present invention relates to a bifacial thin-film solar cell capable of enhancing photovoltaic performance on the rear side by reducing interfacial resistance and recombination characteristics at the interface between the rear transparent electrode and the CIGS in implementing a CIGS-based bifacial thin-film solar cell, and a manufacturing method thereof. The bifacial thin film solar cell according to the present invention is characterized by including: a rear transparent electrode stacked on a transparent substrate; a rear passivation layer stacked on the rear transparent electrode; a conductive thin film pattern formed in some regions on the rear passivation layer; a light-absorbing layer stacked on the front surface of the rear passivation layer including the conductive thin film pattern; a buffer layer stacked on the light-absorbing layer; and a front transparent electrode stacked on the buffer layer.

A solar cell (10) for an electronic device, includes a substrate (100) made of a transparent material to be exposed to incident light radiation, a first electrode (110) made of a transparent, electrically conducting material, formed on one face of the substrate (100) an absorbent layer (130) extending, via an outer face (131), onto an inner face (111) of the first electrode (110), and a second electrode (120) made of an electrically conducting material and extending onto an inner face (132) of the absorbent layer (130) opposite an outer face (131) thereof, the absorbent layer (130) and the second electrode (120) being perforated so as to delimit a plurality of blind cavities (140), the bottom of each of which is formed by the inner face (111) of the first electrode (110.

The present disclosure provides a hybrid heterojunction solar cell, a cell component, and a preparation method, the hybrid heterojunction solar cell comprises a semiconductor substrate having a substrate front surface and a substrate back surface opposite to each other, wherein the substrate front surface is close to a light-facing side of the cell and the substrate back surface is close to a backlight side of the cell; at least two composite layers located on one side of the substrate front surface, each composite layer includes a multi-layer structure of a tunneling layer and a doped polysilicon layer sequentially arranged in a direction gradually away from the substrate front surface. The hybrid heterojunction solar cell, cell component and a preparation method provided by this disclosure can achieve a stable passivation effect on the cell surface, reduce light absorption in the non-metallic areas of the cell, and achieve better process control at the same time.

Optoelectronic device including: a plurality of diodes each including a portion of a stack of first and second semiconductor layers doped according to opposite types, a portion of the first layer of each diode being coupled to a first electrode; trenches running through the stack; a conductive layer arranged against side walls of the trenches, insulated from the stack, coupled to the second electrodes and which is interrupted in such a way that portions of the conductive layer arranged around each of the diodes are insulated from other portions of the conductive layer arranged around the other diodes; conductive portions arranged in the trenches, insulated from the electrically conductive layer and coupled to one another and to a third electrode; bottom walls of the trenches being formed at least by the second electrodes.

Disclosed is a multi-layer contact structure comprising a semiconductor substrate, a terminal electrode, and a contact layer structure. The contact layer structure comprises a metal-containing carrier selective (MCS) layer, the contact layer structure being in intimate contact with the semiconductor substrate and the terminal electrode.