Patent ID: 7888592

Claim:
A photovoltaic power module, comprising: a substrate thermally couplable to a heat sink; one or more photovoltaic cells mounted to said substrate; metallised zones formed on said substrate and constituting a circuit, said metallised zones being generally planar and underlying, in combination, substantially entirely said photovoltaic cells, and the metallised zone being electrically and thermally coupled to said respective photovoltaic cells by solder over substantially all portions of the metallised zones underlying said photovoltaic cells to facilitate heat flow from said photovoltaic cells to said substrate; and one or more bypass diodes each corresponding to a respective one or more of said photovoltaic cells and having first and second terminals; wherein each of said bypass diodes is located between said substrate and the corresponding one or more of said photovoltaic cells and at least in part between respective first and second mutually opposed faces of conducting portions of two adjacent of said metallised zones underlying the photovoltaic cells corresponding to the bypass diode with said first and second terminals facing and electrically coupled to said opposed faces to provide, via the bypass diode, at least a portion of an electrical path from said first opposed face of said conducting portions to said second opposed face of said conducting portions that is substantially parallel to said substrate.