Light-trapping features made with a scalable nanomanufacturing process

Smart Material Solutions, Inc. (SMS) and MicroLink Devices, Inc. will combine their expertise in scalable nanomanufacturing and high-efficiency III-V solar panels, respectively, to further increase the power output of MicroLink’s high-efficiency panels by adding an anti-reflective, light-trapping texture to the panels’ encapsulants. Light-trapping textures can increase the power output of high-efficiency solar panels for space-based and stratospheric applications and provide more power for critical space missions by decreasing reflections, increasing the amount of light that enters the panel, and extending the light’s pathlength inside the panel to give it a better chance of being absorbed. SMS has already used its patented nanopatterning process, which is unique in its ability to create three-dimensional nanopatterns hundreds of times faster than electron beam lithography, to create light-trapping textures and worked with partners to demonstrate scalable roll-to-roll (R2R) fabrication of light-trapping encapsulation films that improve the daily power output of flexible terrestrial solar panels by 5-10%. SMS will now collaborate with MicroLink Devices, Inc. to optimize SMS’s light-trapping features for space-based III-V solar panels and add these features to MicroLink’s solar encapsulants in ways that maintain durability, increase light transmission, and increase the power output of MicroLink’s high-efficiency III-V panels.