Flexible Organic Low-Cost Solar Cell Technology

To address the Air Force need for new technologies for low-cost production of high efficiency flexible photovoltaic (PV) modules, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Flexible Organic Low-Cost Solar (FOLCS) cell technology based on high mobility transport material and high quantum yield photosensitized material structure. The FOLCS cell consists of a composite layer over a conductive flexible substrate, either coated with a transparent electrode or made of metal foil, and encapsulated with a transparent protective layer. Innovations in FOLCS manufacturing technology include: spectral matching design of solar cell structure based on shifting absorption to maximize efficiency of solar power conversion; use of polymerizable columnar discotic liquid crystal material to achieve high charge-carrier mobility in self-aligned PV material; energy saving manufacturing process based on low temperature material coating so that PV modules can be fabricated on flexible substrates. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of the FOLCS technology by fabricating and testing prototype flexible photovoltaic cells that could be incorporated into tent fabric as a limited-scale demonstration of the cell concept and manufacturing process. Phase II will refine the PV module design and develop a draft design for full-scale (100 square meters per hour) manufacturing.