A solar cell is discussed. The solar cell includes a silicon substrate; a front passivation layer positioned on a front surface of the silicon substrate; an n-doped layer positioned on the front surface of the silicon substrate; an anti-reflection layer positioned on the n-doped layer; a p-doped region positioned on a rear surface of the silicon substrate; an n-doped region positioned on the rear surface of the silicon substrate and spaced apart from the p-doped region; a rear passivation layer positioned on the rear surface of the silicon substrate, the rear passivation layer including: a first portion positioned between the p-doped region and the silicon substrate; a second portion positioned between the n-doped region and the silicon substrate, the second portion being space apart from the first potion; and a third portion disposed between the first portion and the second portion; a first electrode directly contacted to the p-doped region; and a second electrode directly contacted to the n-doped region.

One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing solar cells having a nano-micro composite structure on a silicon substrate and solar cells manufactured thereby. The technical problem to be solved is to provide a method for manufacturing solar cells and solar cells manufactured thereby, the method being capable of forming micro wires in various sizes according to the lithographic design of a photoresist and forming nano wires, which have various sizes and aspect ratios, by adjusting the concentration of a wet etching solution and immersion time. To this end, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing solar cells and solar cells manufactured thereby, the method comprising the steps of: preparing a first conductive semiconductor substrate having a first surface and a second surface; patterning a photoresist on the second surface of the first conductive semiconductor substrate such that the plane form of the photoresist becomes a form in which multiple horizontal lines and multiple vertical lines intersect each other; electrolessly etching the semiconductor substrate so as to form a micro wire having a width of 1-3 m and a height of 3-5 m in a region corresponding to the photoresist and to form multiple nano wires having a width of 1-100 nm and a height of 1-3 m in a region not corresponding to the photoresist; doping the micro wire and nano wires with a second conductive impurity by using POCl.sub.3; forming a first electrode on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; and forming a second electrode on the micro wire, wherein the efficiency of the solar cells is 10-13%, the efficiency being the ratio of output to incident light energy per unit area.

The crystalline silicon-based solar cell according to the present invention includes a first intrinsic silicon-based thin-film, a p-type silicon-based thin-film, a first transparent electrode layer, and a patterned collecting electrode on a first principal surface of an n-type crystalline silicon substrate; and a second intrinsic silicon-based thin-film, an n-type silicon-based thin-film, a second transparent electrode layer, and a plated metal electrode on a second principal surface of the n-type crystalline-silicon substrate. On a peripheral edge of the first principal surface, an insulating region freed of a short-circuit between the first transparent electrode layer and the second transparent electrode layer is provided. The plated metal electrode is formed on an entire region of the second transparent electrode layer.

An optoelectronic device comprising a mesa structure including: a first and a second semiconductor portions forming a p-n junction, a first electrode electrically connected to the first portion which is arranged between the second portion and the first electrode, the device further comprising: a second electrode electrically connected to the second portion, an element able to ionize dopants of the first and/or second semiconductor portion through generating an electric field in the first and/or second semiconductor portion and overlaying at least one part of the side flanks of at least one part of the first and/or second semiconductor portion and of at least one part of a space charge zone formed by the first and second semiconductor portions, upper faces of the first electrode and of the second electrode form a substantially planar continuous surface.

A PV module is formed having an array of PV cells, where the cells are separated by gaps. Each cell contains an array of small silicon sphere diodes (10-300 microns in diameter) connected in parallel. The diodes and conductor layers may be patterned by printing. A continuous metal substrate supports the diodes and conductor layers in all the cells. A dielectric substrate is laminated to the metal substrate. Trenches are then formed by laser ablation around the cells to sever the metal substrate to form electrically isolated PV cells. A metallization step is then performed to connect the cells in series to increase the voltage output of the PV module. An electrically isolated bypass diode for each cell is also formed by the trenching step. The metallization step connects the bypass diode and its associated cell in a reverse-parallel relationship.

A photosensor device for reducing dark current is disclosed. The photosensor device includes a photon absorbing layer and two or more photosensor diffusions in said absorbing layer. The photosensor diffusions in the absorbing layer have edges of their diffusions separated in said absorbing layer by less than two minority carrier diffusion lengths. The photosensor device also includes in one embodiment one or more diffusion control junction diffusions in the absorbing layer and in proximity to the photosensor diffusions. In another embodiment the photosensor diffusions are selectively biased to operate as photosensor diodes or as diffusion impediments.

The solar cell includes a substrate having electrode regions and non-electrode regions defined alternatively, where a surface of the electrode regions has a first surface structure, a surface of the non-electrode regions has a second surface structure, the first surface structure has a smaller roughness than the second surface structure, and the second surface structure includes multiple first protrusion structures. The solar cell further includes a tunneling dielectric layer, and a first doped conductive layer arranged on the tunneling dielectric layer. The solar cell further includes a passivation layer arranged on the non-electrode regions and the first doped conductive layer and a first electrode arranged in the electrode regions. The first electrode penetrates the passivation layer to be in electrical contact with the first doped conductive layer.

A photodetector may include an absorption region that is formed to have an increasing depth (or thickness) in a direction that is approximately parallel to the direction of incident light that is to be projected onto the absorption region. The increasing depth of the absorption region in the direction that is approximately parallel with the direction of incident light enables the incident light to be more uniformly distributed along the length of the absorption region in the direction that is approximately parallel with the direction of incident light. This reduces the likelihood that a particular area of the absorption region reaches optical saturation, which may enable the photodetector to operate a sustained high photodetector sensitivity and/or a sustained high light detection performance, among other examples.

A solar cell includes a substrate of a first conductive type, a plurality of first electrodes positioned on one surface of the substrate in parallel with one another, and a plurality of back surface field regions which are positioned respectively correspondingly to the plurality of first electrodes, are separated from one another, and are doped with impurities of the first conductive type at a concentration higher than the substrate. Each back surface field region includes discontinuous regions in a longitudinal direction of the first electrodes. An impurity concentration of the discontinuous regions is lower than an impurity concentration of the back surface field region.

An apparatus comprising a plurality of solar cells that each comprise a nanowire titanium oxide core having graphene disposed thereon. By one approach this plurality of solar cells can comprise, at least in part, a titanium foil having the plurality of solar cells disposed thereon wherein at least a majority of the solar cells are aligned substantially parallel to one another and substantially perpendicular to the titanium foil. Such a plurality of solar cells can be disposed between a source of light and another modality of solar energy conversion such that both the solar cells and the another modality of solar energy conversion generate electricity using a same source of light.