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Category Archives: photovoltaics

“Photonic-powered” player card; IGT; U.S. Pat. No. 8,162,737

08 Jun

U.S. Patent No. 8,162,737, issued on April 24, 2012 to IGT of Reno, NV, discloses a “photonic-powered” player card for keeping track of a gambler’s activities.

According to the ’737 patent, the ability of a casino operator to maximize their operating profits and keep their customers happy is linked in part to their ability to provide rewards or “comps” to their customers commiserate with their value to the casino (i.e., how much money they gamble).  Currently, casinos use a “player card” system which uses a card with a magnetic strip (similar to a credit card) which is swiped to identify the player and to track the player’s activity.  The ’737 patent explains that magnetic-striped cards can only hold a limited amount of information, must be swiped through a contact-based reader, and they don’t provide the player with easily-discernable information. 

The “photonic-powered” card disclosed by the ’737 patent includes a photovoltaic cell which can receive light to provide power to the card and a bi-directional optical interface (with photodetectors and/or LEDs) for contactless communication with the gaming machine (e.g., slot machine, blackjack table).  Other features disclosed by the ’737 patent for the card include non-volatile memory, a liquid-crystal display (LCD), and a touch screen.  Since such an optical communication card would use “line of sight” communication, it is described by the ’737 patent as being more secure than RFID technology which, while contactless, is omnidirectional and more prone to having its signals intercepted.  As interesting as this technology might seem, IGT apparently wasn’t sufficiently interested in it to warrant filing further continuation applications to pursue additional claim scope covering the technology.

According to its website, IGT is a publicly-traded company that “has been the leading company specializing in design, development, manufacturing, distribution, and sales of computerized gaming equipment, software, and network systems worldwide” since 1981.  Patents are certainly a crucial factor in IGT’s protection of their innovations.  The company has received 117 U.S. patents so far in 2012, and received 271 patents in 2011.  The company also is willing to assert its patents against perceived infringers.

I was interested to see that IGT’s website includes a page by which anyone can submit ideas and suggestions to the company.  The page includes a link to an idea submission agreement that, among other provisions, cautions potential submitters that IGT can use the information any way it wishes, and that the only protections the submitter has are those available under the patent and copyright laws of the United States.  In other words, the odds are stacked in favor of the house.

 
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Posted by on June 8, 2012 in authentication, detector, display, LED, photovoltaics

 

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Process for making silicon nanowires; Bandgap Engineering Inc.; U.S. Pat. No. 8,143,143

30 May

U.S. Patent No. 8,143,143, issued on March 27, 2012 to Bandgap Engineering Inc. of Waltham, MA, discloses a process for fabricating silicon nanowires.

According to the ’143 patent, silicon nanowires have been previously grown “from the bottom up” using various deposition techniques performed under vacuum conditions, and formed by removing material from bulk silicon “from the top down” using various plasma etching techniques performed under vacuum conditions.  However, the costs and limited scalability of these techniques has hindered their use.  Existing solution-based processes to etch silicon wafers in a direction normal to the surface have had limited success in achieving diameters that are less than 100 nanometer, which the ’143 patent describes as being of value “to a variety of electronic, optoelectronic, electrochemical and electromechanical applications” since “it is within the sub-100 nm range that silicon begins to demonstrate novel properties distinguishable from the properties of bulk silicon.” 

The ’143 patent discloses a solution-based etching process that deposits sub-100 nm nanoparticles and a silver film onto the silicon wafer, which is then exposed to an etchant aqueous solution of HF and an oxidizing agent.  The silicon wafer is etched in the regions between the nanoparticles, leaving an array of sub-100 nm silicon nanowires standing up on the silicon wafer.  For example, the electron microscope micrographs above show a field of silicon nanowires that have diameters ranging from 12-70 nanometers.  The ’146 patent mentions various uses of this material, including as an interfacial layer between bulk silicon and another material, and novel LED and transistor applications.  Of particular interest to Bandgap Engineering are photovoltaic applications, which utilize the quantum confinement in the silicon nanowires to form intermediate band photovoltaic (IBPV) materials for solar cells, and as anodes in lithium ion batteries.

 According to its website, “Bandgap’s nanowire-enhanced solar cell designs combine low-cost processing with crystalline silicon to yield high-efficiency products” which are made possible by their “highly tunable silicon nanowires.”  They tout that their high-efficiency photovoltaics can reduce reflection of incident light and can “dramatically increase the optical absorption of silicon.”  The company is also developing their silicon nanowires for “high-capacity Li-ion battery anodes.”

According to the USPTO database, the ’146 patent is Bandgap Engineering’s second U.S. patent, the first being issued in July 2011 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,973,995) for an optoelectronic device having a nanowire array and a host material intermingled with the nanowire array and containing light-scattering or absorption/luminescence centers.

 
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Posted by on May 30, 2012 in materials, nanotechnology, photovoltaics

 

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Thin-film photovoltaic devices; Sunlight Photonics, Inc.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,910,396

21 Apr

U.S. Patent No. 7,910,396, issued on March 22, 2011 to Sunlight Photonics, Inc. of South Plainfield, NJ, discloses a method of making thin-film photovoltaic devices.

 

According to the ’396 patent, photovoltaic devices using thin-film compound semicondutor materials such as copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) can provide electricity at higher efficiencies and lower cost, as compared to silicon-based devices.  However, existing techniques for forming such thin films are difficult to scale up to commercial production levels while maintaining requirements of film uniformity and compositional control.  The ’396 patent discloses a method for producing compound semiconductor thin films by depositing a precursor film containing at least two chemical elements and inducing a chemical reaction in the deposited film giving the film a different chemical composition by introducing additional amounts of one of the chemical elements.  The disclosed process is described as “provid[ing] superior compositional uniformity,” “enabl[ing] more flexible control of the film’s morphology,” and “improv[ing] intergrain electrical transport” and intergrain adhesion. 

According to its website, Sunlight Photonics “is a venture-backed company focused on developing low cost, high efficiency renewable energy sources based on solar power.”  The company’s goal is to “develop and bring to the mass market innovative technology to harvest solar energy with high levels of efficiency while providing cost-competitiveness with those of fossil fuel-based electric power plants.”  Sunight Photonics is guided by the former management team of InPlane Photonics, which was acquired by CyOptics in 2007.   According to the USPTO database, Sunlight Photonics owns three U.S. patents, including the ’396 patent, and another (U.S. Pat. No. 7,923,282) recently issued on April 12, 2011.

The ’396 patent resulted from an application filed in October 2009.  About one year after filing, the application was accepted into the USPTO’s “Green Technology Pilot Program,” in response to a petition filed by Sunlight Photonics.  Under this program, the application was given special status so that it could be advanced out of turn for examination.  As a result, the application was examined and allowed in February 2011, resulting in a pendency of about 17 months, which is significantly less than the average pendency for this technology in the USPTO of about 30 months (using FY’09 statistics). 

This pilot program is scheduled to continue until December 2011, and approximately 1/2 of the 3,000 spots in the program currently remain available.  If your application can be characterized as being related to green technology (e.g., greenhouse gas reduction, energy conservation, development of renewable energy resources, etc.) then it may be worthwhile to file such a petition to put your application on a faster track through the USPTO.

 
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Posted by on April 21, 2011 in green technology, materials, photovoltaics, power generation

 

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