Development and manufacture of reactive-transfer-printed CIGS photovoltaic modules

Louay Eldada; Baosheng Sang; Dingyuan Lu; Billy J. Stanbery

doi:10.1117/12.862735

8 September 2010 Development and manufacture of reactive-transfer-printed CIGS photovoltaic modules

Louay Eldada, Baosheng Sang, Dingyuan Lu, Billy J. Stanbery

Proceedings Volume 7771, Thin Film Solar Technology II; 77710M (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.862735
Event: SPIE Solar Energy + Technology, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

In recent years, thin-film photovoltaic (PV) companies started realizing their low manufacturing cost potential, and grabbing an increasingly larger market share from multicrystalline silicon companies. Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) is the most promising thin-film PV material, having demonstrated the highest energy conversion efficiency in both cells and modules. However, most CIGS manufacturers still face the challenge of delivering a reliable and rapid manufacturing process that can scale effectively and deliver on the promise of this material system. HelioVolt has developed a reactive transfer process for CIGS absorber formation that has the benefits of good compositional control, high-quality CIGS grains, and a fast reaction. The reactive transfer process is a two stage CIGS fabrication method. Precursor films are deposited onto substrates and reusable print plates in the first stage, while in the second stage, the CIGS layer is formed by rapid heating with Se confinement. High quality CIGS films with large grains were produced on a full-scale manufacturing line, and resulted in high-efficiency large-form-factor modules. With 14% cell efficiency and 12% module efficiency, HelioVolt started to commercialize the process on its first production line with 20 MW nameplate capacity.

Citation Download Citation

Louay Eldada, Baosheng Sang, Dingyuan Lu, and Billy J. Stanbery "Development and manufacture of reactive-transfer-printed CIGS photovoltaic modules", Proc. SPIE 7771, Thin Film Solar Technology II, 77710M (8 September 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.862735

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