Douglas Ruby, Ph.D., Consultant to the Photovoltaics Industry

List of Patents

Patent No. 6750391 Issue Date: 06/15/2004

Patent Title: Alternating current photovoltaic building block

A modular apparatus for and method of alternating current photovoltaic power generation comprising via a photovoltaic module, generating power in the form of direct current; and converting direct current to alternating current and exporting power via one or more pow..

Patent No. 6329296 Issue Date: 12/11/2001

Patent Title: Metal catalyst technique for texturing silicon solar cells

Textured silicon solar cells and techniques for their manufacture utilizing metal sources to catalyze formation of randomly distributed surface features such as nanoscale pyramidal and columnar structures. These structures include dimensions smaller than ..

Patent No. 6091021 Issue Date: 07/18/2000

Patent Title: Silicon cells made by self-aligned selective-emitter plasma-etchback process

Photovoltaic cells and methods for making them are disclosed wherein the metallized grids of the cells are used to mask portions of cell emitter regions to allow selective etching of phosphorus-doped emitter regions. The preferred etchant is SF6<>

Patent No. 5871591 Issue Date: 02/16/1999

Patent Title: Silicon solar cells made by a self-aligned, selective-emitter, plasma-etchback process

A potentially low-cost process for forming and passivating a selective emitter. The process uses a plasma etch of the heavily doped emitter to improve its performance. The grids of the solar cell are used to mask the plasma etch so that only the emitter i..

Patent No. 5792280 Issue Date: 08/11/1998

Patent Title: Method for fabricating silicon cells

A process for making high-efficiency solar cells. This is accomplished by forming a diffusion junction and a passivating oxide layer in a single high-temperature process step. The invention includes the class of solar cells made using this process, includ..