Patent ID: 8227688

Claim:
A method for fabricating a resulting solar cell from a plurality of photovoltaic strips from a conventional solar cell, the solar cell having less than 60% less silicon per area than the conventional solar cell, the method comprising: providing the plurality of photovoltaic strips, each of the photovoltaic strips being characterized by a width and a length; providing a first lead frame member including a first end and a second end; providing a second lead frame member including a third end and a fourth end; holding the first lead frame member and the second lead frame member, the holding of the first lead frame member and the second lead frame member being characterized by a parallel alignment between the first lead frame member and the second lead frame member; providing at least a plurality of first bonding sites numbered from 1 through N on the first lead frame and onto at least a plurality of second bonding sites numbered from 1 through N on the second lead frame, where N is an integer greater than 2; arranging the plurality of photovoltaic strips, each of the plurality of photovoltaic strips being separated from an adjacent photovoltaic strip by a predetermined distance; providing a first blocking layer exposing the plurality of first bonding sites and providing a second blocking layer exposing the plurality of second bonding sites; dispensing glue material within the first bonding sites and within the second bonding sites; removing the first blocking layer and the second blocking layer leaving glue material within the plurality of first bonding sites and within the plurality of second bonding sites; attaching the plurality of photovoltaic strips numbered from 1 through N respectively onto the plurality of first bonding sites numbered from 1 through N and second bonding sites numbered from 1 through N; forming a resulting plurality of photovoltaic strips coupled between the first lead frame member and the second lead frame member; and coupling the resulting plurality of photo voltaic strips to a transparent front cover member, the transparent front cover member configured to receive incoming light and including a plurality of concentrator elements comprising transparent material, the plurality of photovoltaic strips being approximately aligned below the plurality of concentrator elements of the front cover member, respectively, to provide a resulting solar cell; and whereupon the resulting solar cell having 60% less silicon than the conventional solar cell.