Patent ID: 7989693

Claim:
A method of manufacture of a combination article combining photovoltaic cell structure and a current collector structure suitable for collecting current from a light incident surface of a photovoltaic cell, said method comprising the steps of, providing photovoltaic cell structure comprising semiconductor material, said photovoltaic cell structure having a top light incident surface and a bottom surface formed by a self-supporting metal based foil, said photovoltaic cell characterized as having said semiconductor material covering the complete expanse of an upward facing surface of said metal based foil, providing flexible current collector structure, said current collector structure comprising a polymer based sheetlike substrate having a first substrate surface formed by a first material having adhesive affinity for said top light incident surface and said current collector structure further having a pattern comprising electrically conductive second material supported by said substrate and positioned on said first substrate surface, said current collector structure being manufactured separately and distinctly from said cell structure, combining said current collector structure and said cell structure such that said first substrate surface of said current collector structure and said top light incident surface of said cell structure face each other so that said conductive material associated with said current collector structure contacts said top light incident surface and said pattern is distributed over a preponderance of said top light incident surface, and wherein said combination article produced is flexible such that said combination article is capable of being accumulated onto a roll.