![Solar Cell Energy Conversion Efficiency (wikipedia) - RF Cafe](images4/solar-cell-efficiency-wikipedia.gif)
Solar Cell Energy Conversion Efficiency
(Wikipedia)
This photo of Bell Telephone Labs' three scientists, G.L. Pearson, D.M. Chapin,
and C.S. Fuller, inventors of the "Bell Solar Battery," reminds me of the very
familiar shot of John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley huddled over
their
point contact transistor in December of 1948. The "battery" terminology is an
interesting choice since we normally think of a battery as a charge storage device,
but in fact a battery is fundamentally a charge creation device. A
secondary battery
may be recharged by reversing the depleted chemical (or other) process that generated
the initial charge, but it first created the potential via a basic charge separation
process. What we today refer to as a solar cell is a form of
primary battery that is
not rechargeable. Just as some chemical batteries (cells) are reactivated by replenishing
the electrolyte, the solar cell is replenished by photons giving up their energy
to the semiconductor substrate. At the time of this advertisement (1954), a 6% efficiency
for silicon solar cells was considered to be breakthrough compared to the germanium
type used previously. Today's solar cells whose substrates are complex compounds
of various elements, have yielded as high as nearly 50% energy conversion efficiency.
We've come a long
way, baby!
Bell Telephone Laboratories Solar Battery Ad
The Bell Solar Battery. A square yard of
the small silicon wafers turns sunshine into 50 watts of electricity. The battery's
6% efficiency approaches that of gasoline and steam engines and will be increased.
Theoretically the battery will never wear out. It is still in the early experimental
stage.
Bell Solar Battery
Bell Laboratories scientists have created the Bell Solar Battery. It marks a
big step forward in converting the sun's energy directly and efficiently into usable
amounts of electricity. It is made of highly purified silicon, which comes from
sand, one of the commonest materials on earth.
The battery grew out of the same long-range research at Bell Laboratories that
created the transistor - a pea-sized amplifier originally made of the semiconductor
germanium. Research into semiconductors pointed to silicon as a solar energy converter.
Transistor-inspired techniques developed a silicon wafer with unique properties.
The silicon wafers can turn sunlight into electricity to operate low-power mobile
telephones, and charge storage batteries in remote places for rural telephone service.
These are but two of the many applications foreseen for telephony.
Thus, again fundamental research at Bell Telephone Laboratories paves the way
for still better low-cost telephone service.
Inventors of the Bell Solar Battery, left to right, C. L. Pearson, D. M. Chapin
and C. S. Fuller - checking silicon wafers on which a layer of boron less than 1/10,000
of an inch thick has been deposited. The boron forms a "p-n junction" in the silicon.
Action of light on junction excites current flow.
Bell Telephone Laboratories
Improving Telephone Service for America Provides Careers for Creative Men in
Scientific and Technical Fields
Posted June 9, 2020
Bell Telephone
Laboratories Infomercials |
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Bell Telephone Laboratories - Time Domain Reflectometry - December 1948 Popular
Science
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The Future Holds Great Promise - August 1949 Popular Science
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Waveguide: 7/47 Popular Mechanics
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Wire Wrapping - 10/1953 Popular Science
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X-Rays, 4/60 Radio-electronics
- The Battle of
the Atoms, 4/1948 Radio News
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The Transistor, 6/1952 Radio-Electronics
- 90-Mile Laboratory
for Telephone and Television, 6/1945 Radio News
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Wire-Wrap, 10/53 Radio-Electronics
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EDT Crystals, 10/47 Radio-Craft
- Germanium Refining,
5/54 Radio & TV News
- Crystal Timekeeping,
1/46 Radio News
- Transatlantic
Cable, 11/56 Radio & Television News
- Pipe Circuits,
11/48 Radio & Television News
-
Coaxial
Electron Tube, 6/54 Radio & Television News
- Thermocompression
Wire Bonding, 3/58 Radio News
-
Radio Relay Stations, 8/52 Radio & Television News
- Isolators,
6/56 Radio & Television News
- Punch
Cards, 3/55 Radio & Television News
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Over-the-Horizon
Communications, 10/55 Radio & Television News
- Memory
Devices, 2/58 Radio & TV News
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Adventure in Silicon, 5/55 Radio & Television News
- Pipes of Progress,
6/55 Radio & Television News
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Project Echo, 11/60 Electronics World
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Testing Phones - November 1947 Popular Science
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Jacques Bernoulli, February 1960 Radio-Electronics
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Type-O Carrier System, October 1952 Radio-Electronics
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Electron Microscope, 4/1952 Radio-Electronics
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Thermistor, 11/1946 Radio-Craft
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Germanium Crystal, 1/1954 Radio-Electronics
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Lens
Antenna, 5/46 Radio-Craft
- Quality Control, 6/46
Radio News Article
- Transcontinental
Radio-Relay, 10/51 Radio & TV News
- Solar
Battery, 7/54 Radio & Television News
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Germanium Transistors, 1/54 Radio & Television News
- Cavity
Magnetron, 10/45 Radio News
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The Cableman, 10/49 Radio & Television News
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Coaxial Cable, 12/49 Radio & Television News
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Tin
Whiskers, 12/55 Radio & Television News
- Relay
Contact Inspection, 7/55 Radio & Television News
- Transistor's
10th Anniversary, 6/58 Radio & Television News
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Wire
Wrapping, 10/53 Radio & Television News
- Junction
Diode Amplifier, 11/58 Radio News
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Nobel Prize Winners, 2/57 Radio & Television News
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Diode Speeds Voices, 8/58 Popular Electronics
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Microwave Relays, 7/59 Electronics World
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