Case: Patents/Obviousness (P.T.A.B.)

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board held that some challenged claims of Maxeon Solar Pte. Ltd.'s patent that discloses structures for a relatively efficient and cost-effective front contact solar cell and processes for manufacturing the same are unpatentable as obvious over prior art, in an inter partes review by Canadian Solar Inc. The board held that some challenged claims are obvious over prior art directed to solar cells and a method of manufacturing solar cells that addresses light induced degradation of boron-doped base layers in solar cells, directed to a study of polysilicon emitters with a thermally grown interfacial oxide ...