AGC Flat Glass North America, Asahi Glass Assigned Patentdeveloped by Christopher

AGC Flat Glass North America,Alpharetta,Ga.,and Asahi Glass,Tokyo,have been assigned a patent(8,273,595)developed by Christopher R.Cording,Kingsport,Tenn.,Matthew Spencer,Gray,Tenn.,and Kunio Masumo,Zama,Japan,for a"silicon thin film deposition for photovoltaic device applications."The abstract of the patent published by the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office states:"The present invention provides for cost-efficient methods for on-line deposition of semi-conducting metallic layers.More specifically,the present invention provides on-line pyrolytic deposition methods for deposition of p-type,n-type and i-type semi-conducting metallic layers in the float glass production process.Furthermore,the present invention provides for on-line pyrolytic deposition methods for production of single-,double-,triple-and multi-junction p-(i-)n and n-(i-)p type semi-conducting metal layers.Such p-type,n-type and i-type semi-conducting metal layers are useful in the photovoltaic industry and attractive to manufacturers of photovoltaic modules as"value-added"products."