Researchers at UCLA have developed a low-cost thin-film solar cell fabrication method by replacing vacuum-based deposition with a spray-coating solution-based deposition technique that produces dense films, while avoiding film cracking and the edge-effect. Thin-film solar cells are capable of delivering power conversion efficiencies of around 20% and have excellent lifetimes. Nonetheless, commercialization has been impeded by the costs associated with device fabrication, particularly vacuum-based deposition of the thin-film.
Researchers at UCLA have developed a solution-based thin-film deposition technique that circumvents the need for vacuum based deposition. Instead, the method utilizes spray coating to form a thin, high-quality inorganic film. This fully scalable technique conforms to control requisites, such as the thickness and the metal ratio in the resulting film. Furthermore, because spray coating allows the substrate to be kept at a constant elevated temperature without cooling, the issues associated with film cracking due to multiple heating and cooling cycles are eliminated. The proposed technique is industrially scalable, has high-throughput and is much less costly than many alternatives.
Applications
Thin-film solar cells
Advantages
Low-cost fabrication
Industrially scalable
High throughput
Inventors
Yang, Yang
