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Thermophotovoltaic energy conversion device

Patent ·
OSTI ID:871553
 [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Clifton Park, NY
  2. Burnt Hills, NY
+ Show Author Affiliations
A thermophotovoltaic device and a method for making the thermophotovoltaic device. The device includes an n-type semiconductor material substrate having top and bottom surfaces, a tunnel junction formed on the top surface of the substrate, a region of active layers formed on top of the tunnel junction and a back surface reflector (BSR). The tunnel junction includes a layer of heavily doped n-type semiconductor material that is formed on the top surface of the substrate and a layer of heavily doped p-type semiconductor material formed on the n-type layer. An optional pseudomorphic layer can be formed between the n-type and p-type layers. A region of active layers is formed on top of the tunnel junction. This region includes a base layer of p-type semiconductor material and an emitter layer of n-type semiconductor material. An optional front surface window layer can be formed on top of the emitter layer. An optional interference filter can be formed on top of the emitter layer or the front surface window layer when it is used.
Research Organization:
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL), Niskayuna, NY
DOE Contract Number:
AC12-76SN00052
Assignee:
United States of America as represented by Department of Energy (Washington, DC)
Patent Number(s):
US 5753050
OSTI ID:
871553
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (8)

Peeled film GaAs solar cell development conference January 1990
A technique for producing epitaxial films on reuseable substrates journal September 1980
High-efficiency thin-film AlGaAs-GaAs double heterostructure solar cells conference January 1988
Experimental assessment of low temperature voltaic energy conversion
  • Baldasaro, Paul F.; Brown, Edward J.; Depoy, David M.
  • The first NREL conference on thermophotovoltaic generation of electricity, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.47032
conference January 1995
Type II heterojunctions in the GaInAsSb/GaSb system journal July 1994
Extreme selectivity in the lift‐off of epitaxial GaAs films journal December 1987
Thin-film GaAs solar cells by epitaxial lift-off conference January 1993
GaAsSb-based heterojunction tunnel diodes for tandem solar cell interconnects
  • Zolper, J. C.; Klem, J. F.; Plut, T. A.
  • Proceedings of 1994 IEEE 1st World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion - WCPEC (A Joint Conference of PVSC, PVSEC and PSEC) https://doi.org/10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520724
conference January 1994

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Related Subjects

/136/257/438/
active
active layer
active layers
base
base layer
bottom
bottom surface
bottom surfaces
bsr
conversion
conversion device
device
doped
doped n-type
doped p-type
emitter
emitter layer
energy
energy conversion
filter
formed
front
front surface
heavily
heavily doped
interference
interference filter
junction
layer
layers
layers formed
material
material formed
material substrate
method
n-type
n-type layer
n-type semiconductor
optional
p-type
p-type layer
p-type semiconductor
photovoltaic device
photovoltaic energy
pseudomorphic
reflector
region
semiconductor
semiconductor material
substrate
surface
surface window
surfaces
thermophotovoltaic
thermophotovoltaic device
thermophotovoltaic energy
top
top surface
tunnel
tunnel junction
type semiconductor
window
window layer