Fraunhofer ISE releases 2 new projects to support the scale-up of perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells

• Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells guarantee efficiencies of over 30 percent, as well as it appears that new globe efficiency worths are gotten to in an increasing rate.

These world records, nevertheless, are recognized on locations that have to do with 400 times smaller than the existing wafer size of a typical industrial silicon solar cell. Scalability remains a challenge that numerous solar researchers are trying to conquer, intending to find appealing paths for the scalable and affordable production of such solar cells.

In the just recently launched research projects "Pero-Si-SCALE" and also "LiverPool", funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE is constructing an independent modern technology platform for scaling up perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells as well as modules. The objective is the more growth and analysis of cell and also module layouts along with manufacturing processes which make a rapid transfer to market possible.

" A research platform for perovskite-silicon tandem photovoltaics at this modern technology maturity level is up until now unique globally and also hence an unique marketing factor for German PV r & d," claims Prof. Dr. Stefan Glunz, Division Director for Photovoltaics Research at Fraunhofer ISE. "This platform permits us to properly support the German and European solar sector, in cooperation with various other German research organizations, in the advancement as well as execution of the next generation of solar cells."

With the Pero-Si-SCALE platform, the processes, technologies, and skills needed for the manufacture, characterization and testing of perovskite-silicon solar cells and modules on the industrial wafer format M12 are to be established and developed. "For this objective, we are accumulating a process line, which will certainly be completed by the end of 2024," claims Dr. Martin Hermle, project manager in charge of the growth of the innovation platform at Fraunhofer ISE. "At the cell level, the line includes devices for the vacuum deposition as well as damp chemical coating of the perovskite subcell. At the module level, a next-generation industrial adhesive stringer will be available for the growth of producing processes and also a luminescence system for the quality assurance of the affiliation process. On top of that, the project will permit us to prolong the processes for characterization, calibration as well as quality analysis of solar cells and modules at Fraunhofer ISE to accommodate large wafers."

For laboratory cells with an area of one square centimeter, wet chemical spin coating is the most commonly used process. This technique is practical for the fabrication of little laboratory formats as well as permits rapid screening of new cell designs. Nevertheless, rotate coating is not scalable to commercial substratum sizes. For that reason, the Pero-Si-SCALE platform will be focusing on vacuum evaporation techniques for applying the perovskite subcell to the silicon subcell along with for using the get in touches with. The goal of the Liverpool project is to establish industrially practical vacuum dissipation processes for the deposition of perovskite materials as well as call layers.