58 patents
Design
Semiconductor wafer for mosaic solar cell fabrication
5 Dec 23
Daniel Aiken, Daniel Derkacs, Claiborne McPheeters
Filed: 7 Jan 21
Utility
Automated assembly and mounting of solar cells on space panels
14 Nov 23
Marvin B. Clevenger, Benjamin Richards, Cory Tourino, Lei Yang, Daniel Aiken, Daniel Derkacs, Philip Blumenfeld
Filed: 14 Dec 20
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
Metamorphic solar cells
24 Oct 23
A multijunction solar cell including a metamorphic layer, and particularly the design and specification of the composition, lattice constant, and band gaps of various layers above the metamorphic layer in order to achieve reduction in “bowing” of the semiconductor wafer caused by the lattice mismatch of layers associated with the metamorphic layer.
Zachary Bittner, John Hart, Samantha Whipple, Nathaniel Miller, Daniel Derkacs
Filed: 27 Apr 21
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
Multijunction solar cell
10 Oct 23
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 metamorphic solar cell
10 Oct 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
Multijunction solar cells
10 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 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.
John Hart, Daniel Derkacs, Zachary Bittner, Andrew Espenlaub
Filed: 13 Jan 22
Utility
Solar cell module on flexible supporting film
15 Aug 23
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 metamorphic solar cell
8 Aug 23
A four junction solar cell and its method of manufacture including an upper first solar subcell composed of a semiconductor material having a first band gap; a second solar subcell adjacent to said first solar subcell and composed of a semiconductor material having a second band gap smaller than the first band gap and being lattice matched with the upper first solar subcell; a third solar subcell adjacent to said second solar subcell and composed of a semiconductor material having a third band gap smaller than the second band gap and being lattice matched with the second solar subcell; a graded interlayer adjacent to the third solar subcell and having a fourth band gap greater than the third band gap; and a bottom solar subcell adjacent to the graded interlayer and being lattice mismatched from the third solar subcell and having a fifth band gap smaller than the fifth band gap, wherein the selection of composition of the subcells and their band gaps maximizes the efficiency of the solar cell at a predetermined temperature value (between 28 and 70 degrees Centigrade) at a predetermined time after the initial deployment in space, (the time of the initial deployment being referred to as “beginning-of-life (BOL)”), such predetermined time being referred to as the “end-of-life (EOL)” time, and such time being at least one year.
Daniel Derkacs
Filed: 5 Apr 22
Utility
Multijunction solar cells
1 Aug 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
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
Multijunction solar cells
23 May 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 cells has a graded band gap throughout its thickness.
Daniel Derkacs, John Hart, Zachary Bittner
Filed: 7 Dec 20
Utility
Inverted metamorphic multijunction solar cell
23 May 23
A metamorphic multijunction solar cell having a growth semiconductor substrate with a top surface having a doping in the range of 1x1018 to 1x1020 charge carriers/cm3; a window layer for a top (light facing) subcell formed directly on the top surface of the growth substrate; a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell directly on the window layer; a surrogate substrate on the top surface of the sequence of layers of semiconductor material, wherein a portion of the semiconductor substrate is removed so that only the high doped surface portion of the substrate, having a thickness in the range of 0.5 μm to 10 μm, remains.
Daniel Derkacs, Christopher Kerestes, Steven Whipple
Filed: 10 Nov 20
Utility
Five junction multijunction metamorphic solar cell
16 May 23
A five junction solar cell and its method of manufacture including an upper first solar subcell composed of a semiconductor material having a first band gap; a second solar subcell adjacent to said first solar subcell and composed of a semiconductor material having a second band gap smaller than the first band gap and being lattice matched with the upper first solar subcell; a third solar subcell adjacent to said second solar subcell and composed of a semiconductor material having a third band gap smaller than the second band gap and being lattice matched with the second solar subcell; a fourth solar subcell adjacent to said second solar subcell and composed of a semiconductor material having a fourth band gap smaller than the third band gap and being lattice matched with respect to the third solar subcell; a graded interlayer adjacent to the fourth solar subcell and having a fifth band gap greater than the fourth band gap; and a bottom solar subcell adjacent to the graded interlayer and being lattice mismatched from the fourth solar subcell and having a sixth band gap smaller than the fifth band gap.
Daniel Derkacs
Filed: 30 Mar 21
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
Back contact solar cell assemblies
9 May 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: 8 Feb 22
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