NOVELTY - A photovoltaic device comprises a conductor layer (15); a semiconductor layer (19); an insulator layer (17) sandwiched between the conductor layer and semiconductor layer; and a silicon microparticle (13), where the silicon microparticle is partially embedded in the conductor layer and partially embedded in the insulator layer, and the silicon microparticle is in contact with the semiconductor layer and the conductor layer, and where the semiconductor layer comprises a material which is not silicon.    USE - As photovoltaic device (claimed) such as solar cell or heterojunction photovoltaic device.    ADVANTAGE - The photovoltaic device has high efficiency. Compared to other photovoltaic solar cells, the present photovoltaic device utilizes by-products of the electronics industry i.e. silicon shards, powder, etc. of high purity crystalline silicon. Although these by-products are often recycled, their direct use as raw materials should significantly reduce production costs for solar cells. Additionally, the amount of silicon required is significantly less than is required for wafer-based silicon solar cells. Silicon-based solar cells are intrinsically more stable than organic-based ones. It is an all solid-state device, allowing simple encapsulation techniques to be used. Non-planar geometries are possible, so that geometries optimized for photon collection can be used. The solar cells can make on plastic substrates since the fabrication steps do not require high temperatures. This feature means that the cells can be flexible and should allow low cost, roll-to-roll processing to be used.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - A photovoltaic device comprises a conductor layer (15); a semiconductor layer (19); an insulator layer (17) sandwiched between the conductor and semiconductor layer; and a silicon microparticle (13), where the silicon microparticle is partially embedded in the conductor layer and partially embedded in the insulator layer, and the silicon microparticle is in contact with the semiconductor layer and the conductor layer, and where the semiconductor layer comprises a material which is not silicon. The photovoltaic device further comprises an encapsulating layer (25) on the semiconductor layer opposite of the insulator layer. The semiconductor layer comprises a p-type semiconductor or an n-type semiconductor. The silicon microparticle comprises n-type silicon or p-type silicon. The insulator layer or semiconductor layer and encapsulating layer comprise luminescent dopant. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for producing the photovoltaic device involving partially embedding silicon microparticles in a conductor layer.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows a view of a photovoltaic device.    Silicon microparticle (13)    Conductor layer (15)    Insulator layer (17)    Semiconductor layer (19)    First contact (23)    Encapsulating layer (25)    External load (27)