31 patents
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells
9 Nov 23
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having an emitter and base layers forming a photoelectric junction; a second solar subcell disposed under and adjacent to the upper first solar subcell, and having an emitter and base layers forming a photoelectric junction; and a third solar subcell disposed under and adjacent to the second solar subcell and having an emitter and base layers forming a photoelectric junction; wherein at least one of the base and emitter layers of at least a particular solar subcell from among the upper first solar subcell, the second solar subcell, and the third solar subcell has a graded band gap throughout at least a portion of thickness of its active layer adjacent to the photoelectric junction and being in a range of 20 to 300 MeV greater than a band gap in the active layer away from the photoelectric junction.
JOHN HART, DANIEL DERKACS, ZACHARY BITTNER, ANDREW ESPENLAUB
Filed: 13 Jul 23
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells with Light Scattering Layer
12 Oct 23
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam; a second solar subcell disposed below the upper first solar subcell, and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; wherein a light scattering layer is provided below the second solar subcell and adjacent to the second solar subcell for redirecting the incoming light that has passed through the second solar subcell back into the second solar subcell to be scattered along longer path lengths in the second solar subcell.
Daniel Derkacs, Zachary Bittner, John Hart, Clayton Cozzan
Filed: 23 Nov 22
Utility
Back Contact Solar Cell Assemblies
27 Jul 23
A back contact solar cell assembly and methods for its manufacture and assembly onto a panel for use in space vehicles are described.
Lei Yang, Daniel McGlynn
Filed: 21 Mar 23
Utility
Multijunction Metamorphic Solar Cells
29 Jun 23
A multijunction solar cell in accordance with an example implementation includes a growth substrate; a first solar subcell disposed over or in the growth substrate; a tunnel diode disposed over the first solar subcell; and a grading interlayer directly disposed over the tunnel diode; a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell disposed over the grading interlayer comprising a plurality of solar subcells.
Zachary Bittner, John Hart, Daniel Derkacs
Filed: 19 Jan 23
Utility
Inverted Metamorphic Multijunction Solar Cells for Space Applications
11 May 23
An inverted metamorphic multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell, a second solar subcell and a third solar subcell.
Daniel Derkacs, John Hart, Zachary Bittner
Filed: 4 Jan 23
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells
27 Apr 23
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam; a second solar subcell disposed below and adjacent to and lattice matched with said upper first solar subcell, and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; wherein the upper first solar subcell covers less than the entire upper surface of the second solar subcell, leaving an exposed portion of the second solar subcell around the periphery of the multijunction solar sell that lies in the path of the incoming light beam.
Daniel Derkacs, Daniel McGlynn
Filed: 21 Dec 22
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells
16 Mar 23
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam; and a second solar subcell disposed below and adjacent to and lattice matched with said upper first solar subcell, and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; wherein at least one of the solar subcells has a graded band gap throughout the thickness of at least a portion of its emitter layer and base layer.
John Hart, Daniel Derkacs, Zachary Bittner, Andrew Espenlaub
Filed: 14 Nov 22
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells
2 Mar 23
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam; a second solar subcell disposed below and adjacent to and lattice matched with said upper first solar subcell, and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; wherein at least one of the solar subcells has a graded band gap throughout the thickness of at least a portion of the active layer.
John Hart, Daniel Derkacs, Zachary Bittner, Andrew Espenlaub
Filed: 6 Sep 22
Utility
Multijunction Metamorphic Solar Cell
2 Mar 23
A multijunction solar cell comprising a first solar subcell having a first band gap; a second solar subcell disposed adjacent to said first solar subcell and including an emitter layer, and a base layer having a second band gap less than the first band gap, and being lattice mismatched with the upper first solar subcell, and an intermediate layer directly adjacent to and disposed between first and the second solar subcells and compositionally graded to lattice match the first solar subcell on one side and the second solar subcell on the other side, and arranged so that light can enter and pass through the first solar subcell and at least a portion of which can be reflected back into the first solar subcell by the intermediate layer, and is composed of a plurality of layers of materials with discontinuities in their respective indices of refraction.
Daniel Derkacs, John Hart, Zachary Bittner, Andrew Espenlaub
Filed: 8 Aug 22
Utility
Airfoil Body
8 Dec 22
An airfoil body for an aircraft extending from an inner end to an outer end, and between a leading edge and a trailing edge, comprising an airfoil skin, a planar sheet disposed below the airfoil skin including an array of transducer elements attached to the planar sheet comprising one or more of: (i) an array of semiconductor sensors not including solar cells; (ii) an antenna array and (iii) thermal transfer elements.
Matthew Kruse
Filed: 19 Aug 22
Utility
Multijunction Metamorphic Solar Cells
8 Dec 22
A multijunction solar cell including interconnected first and second discrete semiconductor regions disposed adjacent and parallel to each other including first top solar subcell, second (and possibly third) lattice matched middle solar subcells; a graded interlayer adjacent to the last middle solar subcell; and a bottom solar subcell adjacent to said graded interlayer being lattice mismatched with respect to the last middle solar subcell; wherein an opening is provided from the bottom side of the semiconductor body to one or more of the solar subcells so as to allow a discrete electrical connector to be made extending in free space and to electrically connect contact pads on one or more of the solar subcells.
Daniel Derkacs
Filed: 17 Aug 22
Utility
Inverted Metamorphic Multijunction Solar Cells Having a Permanent Supporting Substrate
8 Dec 22
A method of manufacturing a solar cell that includes providing a semiconductor growth substrate; depositing on said growth substrate a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell; applying a metal contact layer over said sequence of layers; affixing the adhesive polyimide surface of a permanent supporting substrate directly over said metal contact layer and permanently bonding it thereto by a thermocompressive technique; and removing the semiconductor growth substrate.
Arthur B. Cornfeld, Jeff Steinfeldt
Filed: 17 Aug 22
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cell
3 Nov 22
A multijunction solar cell including a substrate and a top (or light-facing) solar subcell having an emitter layer, a base layer, and a window layer adjacent to the emitter layer, the window layer composed of a material that is optically transparent, has a band gap of greater than 2.6 eV, and includes an appropriately arranged multilayer antireflection coating on the top surface thereof.
Daniel Derkacs, Andrew Colin Espenlaub
Filed: 28 Apr 22
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells for Low Temperature Operation
20 Oct 22
A multijunction solar cell includes an upper solar subcell, a bottom solar subcell adjacent to the upper solar subcell, a layer of light scattering elements below and directly adjacent to the bottom solar subcell, and a metallic layer disposed below and adjacent to the layer of light scattering elements.
Daniel Derkacs
Filed: 1 Jul 22
Utility
Solar Cell Module on Flexible Supporting Film
13 Oct 22
A solar cell module comprising a plurality of solar cells mounted on a flexible support, the support comprising a conductive layer on the top surface thereof divided into two electrically isolated portions—a first conductive portion and a second conductive portion.
Daniel Aiken, Daniel Derkacs
Filed: 12 May 22
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells with Shifted Junction
6 Oct 22
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam; a second solar subcell disposed below and adjacent to and lattice matched with said upper first solar subcell, and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; wherein the ratio of the thickness of the emitter layer to the thickness of the base layer in at least one of the solar subcells is between 5:1 and 1:1.
Daniel Derkacs
Filed: 1 Apr 21
Utility
Inverted Metamorphic Multijunction Solar Cell
11 Aug 22
A solar cell comprising an epitaxial sequence of layers of semiconductor material thrilling at least a first and second solar subcells; a semiconductor contact layer disposed on the bottom surface of the second solar subcell; a reflective metal layer disposed below the semiconductor contact layer such that the reflectivity of the reflective metal layer is greater than 80% in the wavelength range 850 to 2000 nm, for reflecting light back into the second solar subcell.
Clayton Cozzan, John Hart, Michael W. Riley, Christopher Kerestes
Filed: 11 Apr 22
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells
4 Aug 22
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam; a second solar subcell disposed below and adjacent to and lattice matched with said upper first solar subcell, and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; wherein at least one of the solar subcells has a graded band gap throughout the thickness of at least a portion of the active layer.
Daniel Derkacs, John Hart, Zachary Bittner, Andrew Colin Espenlaub
Filed: 3 Sep 21
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells
28 Jul 22
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam; a second solar subcell disposed below and adjacent to and lattice matched with said upper first solar subcell, and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; wherein at least one of the solar subcells has a graded band gap throughout the thickness of at least a portion of the active layer of the one solar subcell.
Daniel Derkacs, John Hart, Zachary Bittner, Andrew Colin Espenlaub
Filed: 13 Jan 22
Utility
Multijunction Solar Cells
28 Jul 22
A multijunction solar cell including an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap and positioned for receiving an incoming light beam; and a second solar subcell disposed below and adjacent to and lattice matched with said upper first solar subcell, and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; wherein at least one of the solar subcells has a graded band gap throughout the thickness of at least a portion of its emitter layer and base layer.
Daniel Derkacs, John Hart, Zachary Bittner, Andrew Colin Espenlaub
Filed: 27 Jan 22