Improved optical design for photovoltaic cells and modules

A scheme is described which is based on the use of tilted grooves for transferring light incident on noncell areas, laterally for relatively large distances within the encapsulation material, to where adjacent solar cells are located. Such an approach is shown capable of not only converting dead spaces between cells into active collecting regions, but also of allowing greatly reduced packing factors down to the 20-50% range to be used without loss of module performance. An approach for reducing the reflection at the silicon interface down to well below 1% through the use of off-axis <100> orientation wafers in conjunction with standard encapsulation is described