It was recently reported that Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL), the Chinese manufacturer of energy devices, has filed to publicize its patents for the designs and manufacturing processes of several PV products.
The patents, which have been applied under the category of solar PV products, cover a backsheet, a transparent substrate, a perovskite PV cell, and a device design.
A recent report by Cintelliq on the perovskite solar cell patent landscape shows massive growth in perovskite photovoltaic patent publications over the past two years. In 2016 and 2017 more than 1500 patents have been published representing 75% of all perovskite photovoltaic patents published since 2008.
The total number of patents published to the end of December 2017 is 2030 and filed by 396 distinct assignees. These published patents arise from innovations that occurred in previous years, as can be seen in the chart of yearly patent filed and published. As can also be seen there are fewer patent filings in 2016 and even less in 2017. However, this is not a rapid fall in filings, but a probable side effect of the length of time it takes to go from initial filing through to initial publications.
Solar-Tectic has recently been granted a patent titled "Tin Perovskite/Silicon Thin-Film Tandem Solar Cell" as part of a "Tandem Series" of high efficiency and cost effective solar cells by Solar-Tectic, with the potential to surpass the efficiencies of thin-film solar cell technologies such as CdTe, CIGS, and a-Si and replace the current silicon technology.
The patent is reportedly the first for a perovskite layer on crystalline silicon thin-film (tandem), and covers all non-toxic perovskites and inorganic materials.