Media.Player

Solution-Deposition of CIGS Solar Cell by Spray-Coating

Technology Benefits

Low-cost fabricationIndustrially scalableHigh throughput

Technology Application

Thin-film solar cells

Detailed Technology Description

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.

Supplementary Information

Patent Number: US20120073622A1
Application Number: US13376118A
Inventor: Yang, Yang | Hou, Wei-Jen | Lei, Bao | Li, Shenghan
Priority Date: 4 Jun 2009
Priority Number: US20120073622A1
Application Date: 2 Dec 2011
Publication Date: 29 Mar 2012
IPC Current: H01L0031042 | H01L003102 | H01L00310264 | H01L003118
US Class: 136244 | 136252 | 136264 | 257E31004 | 438095 | 438098
Assignee Applicant: The Regents of the University of California
Title: SOLUTION-PROCESSED INORGANIC PHOTO-VOLTAIC DEVICES AND METHODS OF PRODUCTION
Usefulness: SOLUTION-PROCESSED INORGANIC PHOTO-VOLTAIC DEVICES AND METHODS OF PRODUCTION
Summary: The method is useful for producing a photo-voltaic device (claimed).
Novelty: Producing a photo-voltaic device comprises dissolving metal chalcogenides in a solvent to provide a precursor solution, heating a substrate, and spraying the precursor solution onto a structure comprising the substrate

Industry

Electronics

Sub Category

Semiconductor

Application No.

9190543

Others

Background

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.

Additional Technologies by these Inventors

• High-throughput Solution Processing of Large Scale Graphene for Device Applications
• Three-Terminal Organic Memory Devices
• Bottom Insulating Gate Vertical Organic Transistor
• Rewritable Nano-Surface Organic Electrical Bistable Devices
• Organic Electrical Bistable Devices Fabricated by Solution Processing
• Organic Bistable Device and Organic Memory Cells
• Solution Synthesis and Deposition of Kesterite Copper Zinc Tin Chalcogenide Films
• Polarizing Photovoltaic Device and its Application in Liquid Crystal Displays and Tandem Solar Cells
• Conjugated Polymers with Selenium Substituted Diketopyrrolopyrrole Unit for Electronics Devices
• Multiple Donor/Acceptor Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells
• Au Nanoparticles Doped Polyaniline Nanofiber Non-Volatile Memory Device
• Titanium Oxide as the Window Layer for Metal Chalcogenide Photovoltaic Devices
• Novel Polymers For Polymer Solar Cells, Transistors, And Sensors
• Silver Nanowire-Indium Tin Oxide Nanoparticle As A Transparent Conductor For Optoelectronic Devices
• Design Of Semi-Transparent, Transparent, Stacked Or Top-Illuminated Organic Photovoltaic Devices
• Amorphous Silicon And Polymer Hybrid Tandem Photovoltaic Cell
• Efficient And Stable Of Perovskite Solar Cells With All Solution Processed Metal Oxide Transporting Layers
• A Bi-Functional Lewis Base Additive For Microscopic Homogeneity In Perovskite Solar Cells

Tech ID/UC Case

21598/2009-726-0

Related Cases

2009-726-0

*Abstract

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.

*Applications

• Thin-film solar cells

*IP Issue Date

Nov 17, 2015

*Principal Investigator

Name: Wei-Jen Hou

Department:

Name: Bao Lei

Department:

Name: Sheng-Han Li

Department:

Name: Yang Yang

Department:

Country/Region

USA