A German university has developed a monolithic integrated silicon solar cell with impressed voltage of up to 4.275 V & efficiency of about 7.5 percent. The fields of application are mobile telecommunication systems e.g. mobile phones or portable computers, which justifies the higher costs in comparison with standard applications. The invented solar cell extends the stand-by time or the net-independent time of work significantly without loss of amenity. The university is looking for licensees.

The invented solar cell arrangement consists of series-connected solar subcells. These subcells are built from semiconductor wafers that form a common base material for all of the solar subcells and wherein a number of recesses are provided for delimiting the individual, series-connected solar subcells. Some of the recesses extend from the top surface of the semiconductor wafer, through the wafer itself to the bottom surface. Some bridge segments are left in continuation of the recesses as far as the wafer edge so as to mechanically interconnect the solar subcells.

Innovative Aspects:

In the invented process several solar subcells depending on the application were formed and interconnected on one single silicon wafer. The series-connected solar cell arrangement forms a smart, net-independent voltage source with small dimensions.

Main Advantages:

The offered voltage of the solar cell of about 4 V is directly sufficient for many applications e.g. in telecommunication systems. The prevailing solar cells require additional expensive interconnections between the single solar cells to reach a similar work voltage.

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