Hybrid primary optical component for optical concentrators
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A hybrid, concentrating optical component, comprising:
- i. an aperture;
ii. a reflective optical element that collects and focuses light onto a first target for a first portion of the aperture; and
iii. a refractive optical element that collects and focuses light onto a second target for a second portion of the aperture.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A hybrid optical component that collects and concentrates incident light. The hybrid component includes both refractive and reflective elements. In preferred embodiments, refractive and reflective components focus rays on a common focal plane generally located at the bottom of the reflector where they are absorbed by a device such as a photovoltaic (solar) cell. Additionally, the optical component combines both imaging and non-imaging optical elements into a single device, for improved overall performance.
-
Citations
40 Claims
-
1. A hybrid, concentrating optical component, comprising:
-
i. an aperture;
ii. a reflective optical element that collects and focuses light onto a first target for a first portion of the aperture; and
iii. a refractive optical element that collects and focuses light onto a second target for a second portion of the aperture. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. A method of making an optical concentrating component, comprising the steps of:
-
i. providing a light reflecting element that collects incident light from a first portion of an aperture and concentrates the light onto a target; and
ii. providing a refractive element that captures incident light from a second portion of the aperture and concentrates the light onto the target. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
-
-
35. A method of collecting and concentrating incident light, comprising the steps of:
-
i. collecting light from a first portion of an aperture and reflecting the light from said first portion onto a target; and
ii. collecting light from a second portion of the aperture and refracting the light from said second portion onto the target. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
-
Specification