Defect Passivation for Production-quality and High-bandgap CIGS and CIAS Solar Cells

The proposed Phase II SBIR research will further develop passivation methods that provide a substantial increase in the efficiencies that can be obtained with thin-film photovoltaics on lightweight flexible substrates. The main goal of Phase II activities will be to demonstrate that passivation can boost the large-area efficiency of cells and modules made from CIGS or CIAS by at least 3 percentage points. Another goal will be to realize the maximum benefit that can be achieved with the passivation processes developed in Phase I. Effective passivation methods will be demonstrated to be compatible with the roll-to-roll production and the monolithic integration techniques that enable low-cost production of ultra-lightweight flexible photovoltaic (PV) modules. If successful, the proposed development will allow efficiencies in the range of 11 to 13% (AM0) over large area to be achieved with lightweight thin-film modules fabricated in a production environment. This efficiency, combined with other advantages of thin-film CIGS PV on lightweight substrates, will make satellite solar arrays based on thin-film PV significantly out perform arrays based on crystalline PV in terms of cost and specific power for most space missions, and will be enabling technology for applications such as long-mission duration High Altitude Airships (HAA).