US Patent 7605328 - CIGS nanoparticle photovoltaics

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7605328.html

Nanosolar is a company which has pioneered flexible solar cells based on nanomaterials. This is their latest patent which describes a web coating process to provide cheaper production of solar cells based on copper indium gallium selenide. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for forming an active layer coating, the method comprising the steps of:

forming a molten mixture of one or more metals of group IIIA and metallic nanoparticles containing elements of group IB;

subsequently depositing the molten mixture on a substrate to form a film; and

processing the film in one or more steps to form a photovoltaic absorber layer.