SEMICONDUCTOR PHOTOCONVERTER Russian patent published in 2014 - IPC H01L31/236 B82B1/00 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to semiconductor engineering and specifically to photoelectric converters for direct conversion of solar energy to electrical energy. The invention can be used in the field of renewable energy sources. The semiconductor photoelectric converter consists of monocrystalline silicon plates with vertical thread crystals on the surface thereof, said crystals being obtained by deep plasma-chemical etching and having diffusion coaxial p-n junctions passing through portions of the surface of the substrate without thread crystals and connected into a single horizontal structure by metal gaskets, with current-conducting contacts, with a light-receiving surface with a dielectric antireflection coating. The thread crystals are in form of regular right-angle prisms whose height is greater than the optical depth of absorption of solar radiation in silicon, and the length of the edge of the base is not greater than the diffusion length of minority charge carriers in the silicon microstructure. A method of making the photoelectric converter is also disclosed.

EFFECT: high efficiency of the photoelectric converter due to reduced recombination losses by shortening the transportation path of nonequilibrium charge carriers and absence of impurity centres with deep energy levels.

3 cl, 5 dwg