Patent ID: 8912426

Claim:
A photovoltaic device comprising: a multilayered photovoltaic cell assembly comprised of: at least a polygonal barrier layer with a barrier co-efficient of linear expansion, CLTE, and a photovoltaic cell layer disposed inboard of a baffler layer peripheral edge, the barrier layer including a barrier lower surface portion, a barrier upper surface portion and a barrier side surface portion spanning between the upper and lower surface portions with a barrier profile between the upper and lower surface portions and a barrier perimeter spanning about the polygonal barrier layer which forms the barrier layer peripheral edge; a body portion comprised of: a body material with a body CLTE, the body portion with a body lower surface portion, body upper surface portion and a body side surface portion spanning between the upper and lower surface portions and forming a body peripheral edge, wherein at least a portion of the body portion is molded to a segment of the barrier layer peripheral edge at an interface region; wherein (A) the segment of the barrier layer peripheral edge that is molded to the portion of the body portion has rounded barrier perimeter corners within the segment and (B) the device further includes at least one component of a connector assembly at least partially embedded in the body side surface portion and the connector assembly component includes a connector assembly lower surface portion, a connector assembly upper surface portion and a connector assembly side surface portion spanning between the connector assembly upper surface portion and connector assembly lower surface portion which forms a connector assembly peripheral edge, wherein the connector assembly peripheral edge that is closest to the interface region has at least one rounded connector corner, and the connector assembly is in electrical communication with the photovoltaic cell layer; wherein the photovoltaic device further comprises a reduced thickness region located between the interface region and fastening region, the reduced thickness region being a region of the photovoltaic device with reduced thickness oriented along a dimension which is parallel to a straight portion of the interface region closest to the fastening region.