FollowBandgap Engineering (Woburn, Massachusetts, U.S.) announced that it has secured two patents for its silicon nanowire solar photovoltaic (PV) cell design.
The first patent covers technology to improve the performance of PV cells by placing scattering centers in volume around the nanomaterial, to absorb more light for energy conversion.
The second patent allows for the exploitation of nanowire/matrix interfaces and nano-engineering of the bad structure of silicon for optimized solar energy conversion.
“These latest patents demonstrate the effort Bandgap is making to advance nanowire technology for widespread commercial adoption,” states Bandgap Engineering Founder and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Marcie Black.
“Both patents point the way to cost-effective advances in solar power efficiency. The Bandgap team is also developing corresponding designs, as well as fabrication and manufacturing techniques to reduce solar cell production cost.”
Designs complemented by recent academic work
Bandgap states that its work is complemented by more recent work published by Michael Kelzenberg and others at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, California) which places alumina particles inside a matrix which held and array of silicon wires.
Source: solarserver
