Mapping Technological Trajectories of Crystalline Silicon (c-Si) PV Using Patent Analysis

Abstract

This paper attempts to identify the technological development of crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV technology by analyzing network patent and main trajectory. The data used is the US granted patent from 1976 until 2010, thus resulted of 1,100 patents data. The network of patent citation data is analysed based on the key network measure, followed by developing the network trajectory. The main path analysis is obtained by using both SPLC method (Search Path Link Count) and the SPNP method (Search Path Nodes Pair). The main path further is analyzed along with its sub-path to understand the evolution of c-Si PV technology. The results indicate that: 1) the c-Si Solar cells’s technology has very low network density in which nearly half of the patents are not related with each other, 2) The most cited patent is not a part the main trajectory, meaning that there is low correlation between patent and technology development, 3) The US, Japan, and Germany are the main actors in c-Si solar cells technology. US and Germany are identified as key pioneers during the early stage of this technology, while Japan appears at later stages, 4) Siemens is the main actor in the initial c-Si PV technology.