Patent ID: 8829329

Claim:
A method of manufacturing an integrated photovoltaic cell and battery device, the method comprising: providing a photovoltaic cell, wherein a first side of the photovoltaic cell includes isolated electrical contact to both an n-type layer and a p-type layer; providing a battery, wherein a first side of the battery includes isolated electrical contact to both a cathode and a collector; and bonding the photovoltaic cell and the battery to create a three-dimensional integrated device for capturing and storing solar energy, wherein providing the photovoltaic cell includes: forming a wafer having a p-type layer and a dielectric layer; opening a through-hole through the wafer; forming an n-type doped layer into an exposed surface of the p-type layer of the wafer; removing part of the dielectric layer of the wafer to form an isolated region of dielectric layer around the through-hole; metallizing a side of the wafer having the isolated dielectric region to form a contact layer, wherein the through-hole is at least partially filled to form an interconnect; and removing part of the contact layer to form an isolated contact region around the interconnect which separates the interconnect from the rest of the contact layer.