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Details
Inventors: Miller, Eric L.; Rocheleau, Richard E.;
Assignee: University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI)
Primary Examiner: Pham; Long
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Duane Morris LLP

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device for production of a gas from a material comprising the gas using light as the sole power source. In an embodiment, the semiconductor comprises a substrate; a solid-state semiconductor layer disposed on the substrate; a photoactive semiconductor top layer further comprising a photoelectrochemical electrode junction; and an interface layer disposed between the solid-state semiconductor layer and the photoactive semiconductor top layer. A surface of the photoactive semiconductor top layer is exposed to both a source of light such as the sun and to the material, e.g. a liquid electrolyte. The gas is liberated from the material, e.g. hydrogen liberated from a liquid electrolyte. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG.
1, semiconductor device 100 is adapted to produce one or more gases 60 upon exposure to light 81, for example sunlight, when semiconductor device 100 is at least partially suspended in material 50 containing the constituent materials of gas 60.
It is understood that, as used herein, "gas 60" may comprise a single gas, e.
g.
gas 60a, or a plurality of gases, e.
g.
gas 60a and/or gas 60b.
Encapsulation film 90 may be deposited to protect one or more edges of semiconductor device 100 while semiconductor device 100 is suspended in material 50.
Referring now to FIG.
2, semiconductor device 100 comprises substrate 120, semiconductor layer 130 disposed on first surface 121 of substrate 120, photoactive semiconductor top layer 150, and interface layer 140 disposed between semiconductor layer 130 and photoactive semiconductor top layer 150.
Photoactive semiconductor top layer 150 further comprises photoelectrochemical electrode junction 151 disposed at a surface of semiconductor top layer 150 that may be exposed to material 50.
Substrate 120 may comprise an electrically conductive layer, component, or coating, or the like, or a combination thereof, e.
g.
stainless steel, nickel, titanium, coated glass, or coated plastic, or the like, or a combination thereof, to provide electrical continuity between surface 121 and surface 122.
Semiconductor layer 130 may comprise a plurality of semiconductor layers 132 forming a solid-state photovoltaic device, for example, but not limited to, configurations arranged in one or more P-I-N or N-I-P sequences as will be familiar to those of ordinary skill in the semiconductor arts.
In a preferred embodiment, the plurality of semiconductor layers 132 may be fabricated using amorphous silicon, amorphous germanium, amorphous silicon-germanium, microcrystalline silicon, microcrystalline germanium, microcrystalline silicon-germanium, copper-indium-gallium-diselenide or the like or a combination thereof



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