Flexible, Lightweight, Amorphous Silicon Based Solar Cells on Polymer Substrate for Space and Near-Space Applications

ABSTRACTUnited Solar Ovonic has leveraged its history of making amorphous silicon solar cells on stainless steel substrates to develop amorphous silicon alloy (a-Si:H)-based solar cells and modules on ∼25 μm thick polymer substrate using high-throughput roll-to-roll deposition technology for space and near-space applications. The solar cells have a triple-junction a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H/a-SiGe:H structure deposited by conventional plasma enhanced CVD (PECVD) using roll-to-roll processing. The cells have distinct advantages in terms of high specific power (W/kg), high flexibility, ruggedness, rollability for stowage, and irradiation resistance. The large area (23.9 cm x 32.1 cm) individual cells manufactured in large quantity can be readily connected into modules and have achieved initial, 25 °C, AM0 aperture-area efficiency of 9.8% and initial specific power of 1200 W/kg. We have conducted light-soak studies and measured the temperature coefficient of the current-voltage characteristics to determine the stable values at an expected operating temperature of 60 °C. The stable total-area efficiency and specific power at 60 °C are 7.2% and 950 W/kg, respectively. In this paper, we review the challenges and progress made in development of the cells, highlight some applications, and discuss current efforts aimed at improving performance.

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Very Long and Large-Area RF Plasma Productions by Odd Surface Waves for Online Mass Production of Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells or Mirrors

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics ◽

10.1143/jjap.33.4226 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 33 (Part 1, No. 7B) ◽

pp. 4226-4231 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Shigehiko Nonaka

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Surface Waves ◽

Amorphous Silicon ◽

Mass Production ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Rf Plasma ◽

Large Area

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Excitation Frequency Effects on Stabilized Efficiency of Large-Area Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells Using Flexible Plastic Film Substrate

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics ◽

10.1143/jjap.42.l1312 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 42 (Part 2, No. 11A) ◽

pp. L1312-L1314 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Akihiro Takano ◽

Masayuki Tanda ◽

Makoto Shimosawa ◽

Takehito Wada ◽

Tomoyoshi Kamoshita

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Amorphous Silicon ◽

Excitation Frequency ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Plastic Film ◽

Large Area ◽

Frequency Effects ◽

Film Substrate

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Large area GaInAsP and GaInP solar cells for space applications

Physica Scripta ◽

10.1088/0031-8949/1994/t54/042 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol T54 ◽

pp. 172-174

Author(s):

K Smekalin ◽

K Tappura ◽

J Lammasniemi

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Large Area ◽

Space Applications

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Efficient and Flexible Thin Film Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells on Nanotextured Polymer Substrate Using Sol-gel Based Nanoimprinting Method

Advanced Functional Materials ◽

10.1002/adfm.201604720 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 27 (13) ◽

pp. 1604720 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Chi Zhang ◽

Ye Song ◽

Min Wang ◽

Min Yin ◽

Xufei Zhu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Solar Cells ◽

Amorphous Silicon ◽

Sol Gel ◽

Polymer Substrate ◽

Silicon Solar Cells

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Large-area Deposition of Amorphous Silicon Alloys Using a Roll-to-roll Operation

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/proc-870-h1.1 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 870 ◽

Author(s):

Subhendu Guha ◽

Jeffrey Yang

Keyword(s):

Amorphous Silicon ◽

Triple Junction ◽

Stainless Steel Substrate ◽

Steel Substrate ◽

Chemical Vapor ◽

Large Area ◽

Silicon Alloys ◽

Roll To Roll ◽

Layer Structures ◽

Area Deposition

AbstractLarge-area deposition of thin-film amorphous silicon alloy triple-junction solar cells on lightweight and flexible stainless steel substrate is described. The proprietary roll-to-roll operation enables continuous depositions of sophisticated multi-layer structures. The deposition methods include sputtering and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor depositions. Spectrumsplitting triple-junction solar cell design, manufacturing processes, and product applications are presented.

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Large-Area Hydrogenated Amorphous and Microcrystalline Silicon Double-Junction Solar Cells

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/proc-808-a9.41 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 808 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Baojie Yan ◽

Guozhen Yue ◽

Arindam Banerjee ◽

Jeffrey Yang ◽

Subhendu Guha

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Deposition Time ◽

High Rate ◽

Microcrystalline Silicon ◽

Large Area ◽

Area Efficiency ◽

Rf Glow Discharge ◽

Double Junction ◽

Junction Structure ◽

Hydrogenated Amorphous

ABSTRACTHydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon ( c-Si:H) double-junction solar cells were deposited on a large-area substrate using a RF glow discharge technique at various rates. The thickness uniformity for both a-Si:H and c-Si:H is well within ± 10% and the reproducibility is very good. Preliminary results from the large-area a-Si:H/m c-Si:H double-junction structures show an initial aperture-area efficiency of 11.8% and 11.3%, respectively, for 45 cm2 and 461 cm2 size un-encapsulated solar cells. The 11.3% cell became 10.6% after encapsulation and stabilized at 9.5% after prolonged light soaking under 100 mW/cm2 of white light at 50°C. High rate deposition of the c-Si:H layer in the bottom cell was made using the high-pressure approach. An initial active-area (0.25 cm2) efficiency of 11.3% was achieved using an a-Si:H/m c-Si:H double-junction structure with 50 minutes of c-Si:H deposition time.

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Vacuum-Free Fabrication Strategies for Nanostructure-Embedded Ultrathin Substrate in Flexible Polymer Solar Cells

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13205375 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (20) ◽

pp. 5375

Author(s):

Soo Won Heo

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Incident Angle ◽

Polymer Solar Cells ◽

Solution Process ◽

Polymer Substrate ◽

Large Area ◽

Mixture Ratio ◽

Photoactive Layer ◽

One Dimensional ◽

Flexible Polymer

In this paper, we discuss a method for fabricating an ultrathin polymer substrate with one-dimensional nanograting patterns to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ultrathin polymer solar cells (PSCs) and suppress the dependence on the incident angle of light. Because the fabricating process of the ultrathin polymer substrate was carried out using a solution process, it can be manufactured in a large area, and the PCE of the patterned ultrathin substrate-based PSC is improved by 8.9% compared to the non-patterned device. In addition, triple-patterned ultrathin PSCs incorporating the same nanograting pattern as the substrate were fabricated in the electron transport (ZnO) layer and the photoactive layer (PBDTTT-OFT and PC71BM mixture (ratio-1: 1.5)) to achieve PCE of 10.26%. Thanks to the nanograting pattern introduced in the substrate, ZnO layer, and photoactive layer, it was possible to minimize the PCE change according to the incident angle of light. Moreover, we performed 1000 cycles of compression/relaxation tests to evaluate the mechanical properties of the triple-patterned ultrathin PSCs, after which the PCE remained at 71% of the initial PCE.

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Fabrication of Large Area Amorphous Silicon/Nanocrystalline Silicon Double Junction Solar Cells

2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conference ◽

10.1109/wcpec.2006.279821 ◽

2006 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Gautam Ganguly ◽

Guozhen Yue ◽

Baojie Yan ◽

Jeff Yang ◽

Subhendu Guha

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Amorphous Silicon ◽

Nanocrystalline Silicon ◽

Large Area ◽

Double Junction

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Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells: Progress and Prospects

Frontiers in Materials ◽

10.3389/fmats.2021.634353 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Xiao Liang ◽

Chuangye Ge ◽

Qianru Fang ◽

Wanyuan Deng ◽

Sukumar Dey ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Perovskite Solar Cells ◽

Significant Progress ◽

Electronic Products ◽

Interface Modification ◽

The Past ◽

Roll To Roll ◽

Electricity Power ◽

High Flexibility

Flexible perovskite solar cells (FPSCs) have shown great potential in the field of wearable power supply and integration with architectures in the future due to their advantages of high flexibility, light weight, portability, and compatibility with irregular electronic products. As a promising photovoltaic technology compatible with roll-to-roll manufacturing process, FPSCs have made significant progress in the past several years through composition engineering, interface modification, optimization of fabrication process, and exploitation of new charge transport materials. As a result, the light-to-electricity power conversion efficiency of FPSCs has exceeded 20% recently. In this mini review, the latest developments of FPSCs are systematically summarized and discussed, including the flexible substrates and electrodes, as well as the fabrication of high-quality perovskite films. Finally, a prospect on the massive manufacturing of FPSCs as well as the challenge is also discussed.

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