AVALANCHE BREAKDOWN PROTECTION FOR HIGH CURRENT, NON-ELONGATE SOLAR CELLS WITH ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE SUBSTRATES

1 . A thin film solar cell with avalanche breakdown protection.

2 . The device of claim 1 comprising:

a non-elongated, non-silicon thin-film solar cell using an electrically conductive foil substrate wherein the foil substrate carries current when the cell is forward biased, the substrate having a ratio of width to length greater than about 0.5 along an axis of current flow, and when exposed to light at AM 1.5 G, the solar cell has an Impp greater than about 2 amps;

wherein the solar cell exhibits avalanche breakdown down at one or more locations in the cell;

an avalanche breakdown protection unit to prevent the avalanche breakdown at the one or more locations by directing current through the protection unit.

3 . The device of claim 1 comprising:

wherein the conductive substrate creates the avalanche breakdown due to the much larger current that can be delivered to any one location in the cell.

4 . The device of claim 1 comprising:

wherein the non-elongated solar cell is not susceptible to shading and the diode is not activated when the cell is shaded.

5 . The device of claim 1 comprising:

wherein the non-elongated solar cell is not monolithically integrated with another cell.