TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN PHOTOVOLTAICS FOR THE LAST DECADE: AN ANALYSIS ON THEBASIS OF PATENT APPLICATION FILING DATA

摘要

After introducing the role and importance of the European Patent Office (EPO) as one of the majorpatent granting and technical documentation collecting and classifying institutions, the actual trends of thephotovoltaic technology are presented through a statistical study based on patent application filing figures. Thestatistics are based on relevant data subsets extracted from patent documentation databases available at the EPO.In this study, the number of patent applications first filed between 1990 and 2004, per year and for the wholeperiod, in several of the most relevant solar cell technologies are presented and filing data compared.The considered technologies are: crystalline silicon and high efficiency solar cells, amorphous andmicrocrystalline silicon and silicon alloys thin films, CIS (Copper Indium Diselenide and related materials) basedsolar cells, II-VI compounds solar cells, III-V compounds solar cells, and organic semiconductor/polymer cells.Due to their social, economical and ecological importance, the analysis is extended to comprise patent applicationsdealing with the integration and combination of solar cells in architecture and urban landscapes.This study illustrates the activity of the Research and Development in photovoltaics distributed by geographicalareas and by different technologies.