Patent ID: 8742249

Claim:
A solar module structure, comprising: a top encapsulant layer; a plurality of thin crystalline semiconductor solar cells, each thin crystalline semiconductor solar cell comprising: a thin crystalline semiconductor solar cell substrate comprising doped emitter junction regions and doped base regions; emitter metallization regions; and base metallization regions; a printed circuit board comprising a top patterned electrical layer on the printed circuit board frontside and attached individually and discretely to each of said plurality of thin crystalline semiconductor solar cells and a continuous rear patterned electrical interconnect layer on the printed circuit board backside and electrically connected to said top patterned electrical layer through vias in said printed circuit board, said top patterned electrical layer electrically contacting both emitter and base metallization regions for each of said solar cells, said continuous rear patterned electrical interconnect layer electrically interconnecting adjacent thin crystalline semiconductor solar cells of said module, a plurality of shunt diodes positioned on and directly attached to said continuous rear patterned electrical interconnect layer, each shunt diode corresponding to each of said thin crystalline semiconductor solar cells, said shunt diodes embedded within said module structure; a rear encapsulant layer; and a protective back sheet.