New materials for solar cells

Imec research centre in Leuven, Belgium, is working together with Flamac, a division of SIM vzw (Strategisch Initiatief Materialen in Vlaanderen or Strategic Initiative Materials in Flanders) to develop semiconductor materials for solar cell applications.

Within this collaboration, novel materials are screened as an alternative for the standard solar cells made of copper indium gallium and selenium (CIGS).

Flamac’s recently installed PVD (physical vapour deposition)/PE-CVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition) coater allows the automated deposition of a variety of thin film materials. The platform consists of eight process chambers enabling the study of PVD and PE-CVD coating processes.

This coating system combined with the variety of high-throughput analytic tools available represents a platform for accelerated screening of novel materials.

Imec’s research focuses on improving the efficiency and manufacturability of a number of key technologies, most notably silicon-based solar cells and thin-film solar cells such as organic solar cells and printed inorganic cells based on nanoparticle inks.

Thin film solar cell activities are integrated in the Solliance collaboration platform. Solliance’s ambition is to strengthen the position of the Eindhoven-Leuven-Aachen triangle (ELAT region) as a world player in thin film PV. It aims to do this by joint use of infrastructure, alignment of research programs and close cooperation with the solar business community.