This dataset identifies twelve published patent families combining PERC cell architecture with testing and inspection methods such as electroluminescence inspection, IV measurement, photoluminescence and general defect detection, filed between 2015 and mid-2026. That is a small, tightly scoped set rather than a broad field, because the search string requires both a PERC-specific claim and a specific inspection method in the same family. Broader searches on PERC alone or on solar defect detection alone would return substantially more records.

2018 was the single highest year in this dataset at five filings, coinciding with PERC's broader commercialisation ramp in the solar manufacturing industry. Filings dropped afterward and the midpoint year, 2022, recorded zero, suggesting the initial wave of inspection-method patenting was tied to that commercialisation push rather than to an ongoing cycle of innovation. Readers should treat the most recent one to two years of the trend as understated because of the typical eighteen-month gap between filing and publication.

The assignee list in this dataset is dominated by three affiliated Aiko Solar entities — Zhejiang Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Guangdong Aiko Technology Co., Ltd. and Tianjin Aiko Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. — which also form all three identified co-assignee pairs, indicating shared internal filing practice. Resonac Holdings Corporation and Plant PV, Inc. also appear as assignees, alongside The University of Toledo with an academic filing extending PERC methods to CdTe cells. None of the six tracked assignees show filings in the latest tracked year.

US20200343403A1, filed by The University of Toledo and published 2020-10-29, covers methods for forming electrical contacts with CdTe layers, methods for forming photovoltaic devices, methods for passivating a CdTe surface, and the resulting photovoltaic devices themselves. It applies PERC-style rear-contact and passivation concepts to cadmium telluride cells rather than to conventional silicon PERC architecture. Anyone building a CdTe-based rear-contact or passivation process should review its claims before finalising a process flow.

Based on the IPC composition, coverage is dense in core semiconductor device and photovoltaic power generation classes but thin in adjacent manufacturing-linked areas — coating processes, welding and soldering, additive manufacturing, and glass and coating compositions each appear in only two of the twelve families. Specific sub-areas such as in-line electroluminescence for bifacial PERC, photoluminescence defect classification for CdTe-PERC hybrids, automated IV-curve anomaly scoring, and laser-induced defect signatures on rear passivation layers show little dedicated claim activity in this set. That thinness is a starting point for a novelty search, not proof of open white space — a broader search should confirm it before any filing decision.