AGC Flat Glass North America, Asahi Glass Assigned Patent

Cording, Kingsport, Tenn., Matthew Spencer, Gray, Tenn., and Kunio Masumo, Zama, Japan, for a "silicon thin film deposition for photovoltaic device applications." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The present invention provides for cost-efficient methods for on-line deposition of semi-conducting metallic layers. More specifically, the present invention provides on-line pyrolytic deposition methods for deposition of p-type, n-type and i-type semi-conducting metallic layers in the float glass production process. Furthermore, the present invention provides for on-line pyrolytic deposition methods for production of single-, double-, triple- and multi-junction p-(i-)n and n-(i-)p type semi-conducting metal layers. Such p-type, n-type and i-type semi-conducting metal layers are useful in the photovoltaic industry and attractive to manufacturers of photovoltaic modules as "value-added" products."

The patent application was filed on April 7, 2010 (12/755,712). The full-text of the patent can be found here.