Patent ID: 7873257

Claim:
A light-guide solar panel module comprising: a) a single planar light-insertion molded polymeric slab that is transmissive to sunlight including: an input surface for receiving impinging sunlight, a plurality of first optical elements, and a plurality of optical output apertures formed from the sunlight transmissive polymer, each one of the plurality of optical output apertures being associated with one of the plurality of first optical elements such that there is a one-to-one relationship between each one of the plurality of optical output apertures and each one of the plurality of first optical elements, each one of the plurality of first optical elements being located optically in between the input surface and its associated optical output aperture, wherein each one of the plurality of first optical elements including a first reflector having a single reflective surface positioned with respect to the input surface (i) to receive sunlight directly through the input surface at an angle smaller than a critical angle for total internal reflection of the sunlight at the reflecting surface, and (ii) to reflect the received sunlight only once and at an oblique angle with respect to the impinging sunlight to redirect the sunlight towards the one of the plurality of optical apertures; b) a single planar wedge-shaped optical waveguide molded polymeric slab that is transmissive to sunlight having: a first surface, a plurality of stepped second reflectors opposite to the first surface, each one of the plurality of second reflectors being associated with one of the first optical elements such that there is a one-to-one relationship between each one of the plurality of second reflectors and each one of the plurality of first optical elements, an output surface, wherein the optical waveguide slab being optically coupled to each of the plurality of optical output apertures to receive the sunlight therefrom, the first surface and the plurality of second reflectors being positioned and arranged such that the sunlight received via the optical output apertures is guided through the optical waveguide slab towards the output surface via multiple total internal reflections between the plurality of second reflectors and the first surface; c) a photovoltaic cell for receiving the sunlight having been concentrated by the light-insertion slab and the waveguide slab; and d) a single second optical element that is transmissive to sunlight and has at least one reflective surface positioned to redirect at least a portion of the sunlight travelling within the waveguide slab towards the photovoltaic cell.