Fabrication of Flexible Amorphous-Si Thin-Film Solar Cells on a Parylene Template Using a Direct Separation Process

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the fabrication of flexible amorphous-silicon (a-Si) thin-film solar cells on a parylene template carried by a glass plate without any adhesive. The a-Si thin-film solar cells could be separated directly from the glass carrier after a process temperature of up to 200 degrees C. The a-Si and parylene films were deposited using high-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and a parylene reactor. The parylene-coated glass plate was treated with thermal annealing and Ar, N(2), or O(2) plasma. Moreover, SiN(x) and/or SiO(x) films were used as barrier layers between the transparent conductive oxide and parylene films. Details of different gas plasmas and barrier effects were investigated in terms of surface morphologies and solar cell characteristics. The a-Si thin-film solar cell on a parylene template with an open-circuit voltage of 0.74 V, a short-circuit current density of 15.69 mA/cm(2), a fill factor of 54.98%, and a conversion efficiency of 5.78 % could be obtained. After the 10-mm-radius bending test for 5000 times, the a-Si thin-film solar cells still exhibited a conversion efficiency of 4.94%. These results indicated that a-Si thin-film solar cells on parylene templates have high potential for flexible photovoltaic applications

Flexible Solar Cells Using Doped Crystalline Si Film Prepared by Self-Biased Sputtering Solid Doping Source in SiCl4/H2 Microwave Plasma

“…In view of the above findings, we conclude that the prepared intrinsic and doped crystalline Si films on PI substrate using SiCl 4 /H 2 microwave plasma without and with SSSDS process respectively, are satisfactory and promising SC-grade materials. Therefore, as compared with the published data in performance of flexible Si-SCs using a single junction n – i – p structure (Figure S5), − this study demonstrated a relatively large area and high efficiency flexible Si film-based solar cell. In our study, the crystalline Si film solar cell on PI substrate with η value of 6.75% in an active area of 1 cm 2 was obtained by using an intrinsic Si film of 2 μm and a doped Si film of 50 nm.…”

High responsivity, low dark current, heterogeneously integrated thin film Si photodetectors on rigid and flexible substrates

“…However, there are many other low thermal budget processes such as kerf-less exfoliation [16], methods utilizing elastomeric stamps [17] and transfer diaphragms [18] that enable fabrication, transfer, and bonding of thin-film devices, and thin-film device arrays to foreign substrates [3,19]. These methods would allow integration of the devices reported herein on to substrates such as PET [5,6], polyester [20], Parylene [21], and silk fibroin [22], and other inexpensive, eco-friendly and bio-compatible substrates. However, contact annealing temperatures affect contact resistance and dark currents, and processes which enable contact annealing (not necessarily after bonding to the host substrate) are an important consideration for high performance devices.…”

Flexible Electronics-Based Transformers for Extreme Environments

“…Made of a gossamer-thin flexible multi-layer sheet, they may have one side covered with solar cells, and the other side with a highly reflective coating, while inner layers compute, self-actuate to change shape, store energy in batteries, and embed a spider-web antenna. All of these subsystem functions have been individually demonstrated on thin flexible layers of tens of microns thickness (some shown in Figure 2): power from solar arrays [1,2], avionics circuits [3], controls [4], sensing [5], shape-memory alloy actuation [6], communication circuits [7,8], and antennas [9]. The study will include system integration of the sub-systems by same-layer integration options, as demonstrated by Epidermal electronics [10] and by multi-layer stacking [11].…”