Roll process innovations enabling high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing of printable solar cells

The objectives of the proposed work are to establish techniques for high-throughput, relatively inexpensive manufacturing of thin-film photovoltaic modules. Thermal and chemical treatments required for solar cell production typically require several minutes of dwell time and are consequently slow, and the costs associated with these steps are substantial components of the total. We propose to develop a novel method of applying atomic layer deposition (ALD) to large surface areas which could replace vacuum deposition of electrode layers. In parallel, we propose printing-based approaches to the construction of modules from individual cells which maintain the throughput of earlier process steps and increase yield by allowing cost-efficient selection and interconnection of functioning cells of equal efficiency.