Patent ID: 8134067

Claim:
A photovoltaic module, comprising: a plurality of photovoltaic cells, {C j }, spatially formed on a substrate in an array along a transverse direction, j=1, 2, 3, . . . , N, N being an integer greater than one, each photovoltaic cell C j comprising: (a) a first conductive layer formed on the substrate, having a first end portion and an opposite, second end portion defining a body portion therebetween, wherein the body portion has a first thickness, H 1 , and at least one end portion of the first and second end portions has a second thickness, H 2 , being variable along the transverse direction and satisfying with the relationship of H 1 ≧H 2 >0; (b) an active layer at least partially formed on the first conductive layer and extending onto the substrate at the at least one end portion of the first conductive layer; and (c) a second conductive layer at least partially formed on the active layer, wherein the active layer and the second conductive layer of any one but the last photovoltaic cell C k are spatially separated from that of its immediately next photovoltaic cell C k+1 by a window that exposes a portion of the first conductive layer of the immediately next photovoltaic cell C k+1 , k=1, 2, 3, . . . , (N−1); wherein the plurality of photovoltaic cells is electrically coupled to each other in series such that the second conductive layer of any one but the last photovoltaic cell C k is electrically connected to the first conductive layer of its immediately next photovoltaic cell C k+1 ; and wherein the first conductive layer of any one but the last photovoltaic cell C k is spatially separated from that of its immediately next photovoltaic cell C k+1 by a distance D k , wherein D 1 >D 2 >D 3 > . . . >D N-1 or D 1 <D 2 <D 3 < . . . <D N-1 ; and a protection layer formed on the second conductive layers and extending onto the exposed portions of the first conductive layers of the plurality of photovoltaic cells {C j } such that each photovoltaic cell C j is hermetically sealed from a surrounding environment.