Patent ID: 8742251

Claim:
A photovoltaic power converter comprising: a substrate of a semiconductor material; a first multilayer structure supported by the substrate and comprising: a first base layer of a semiconductor material of a first conductivity type, a first emitter layer of a semiconductor material of a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type disposed over the first base layer so as to form a first p-n junction, and a first conducting layer of the second conductivity type disposed over the first emitter layer and having a thickness in the range from about 1 micron to about 3 microns; a plurality of trenches extending through the first multilayer structure so as to form a plurality of spatially separate device segments supported by the substrate, the plurality of device segments comprising a center segment that is centrally positioned and two or more of ring segments forming a ring device section around the center segment, wherein each of the ring segments comprises a first metal contact disposed upon an exposed portion of the first base layer and providing an electrical contact to the first base layer, and a second metal contact disposed upon the first emitter layer and providing an electrical contact to the first emitter layer; wherein the center segment comprises a second multilayer structure disposed over the first multilayer structure, the second multilayer structure comprising: a second base layer of a semiconductor material of the first conductivity type disposed over the first conducting layer; a second emitter layer of a semiconductor material of the second conductivity type disposed over said second base layer so as to form a second p-n junction; a third metal contact disposed upon an exposed portion of-the second base layer of the center segment and providing an electrical contact thereto; a fourth metal contact disposed in the center segment over the second emitter layer for providing an electrical contact thereto; electrical interconnects for electrically connecting in series the device segments of the ring section by connecting each but one first metal contact thereof to an adjacent second metal contact, for developing a voltage between two of the device segments of the ring section in response to radiation incident upon the device sections.