SBIR Phase I: Development of printing process of effectively transparent contacts (ETCs) for III-V, thin-film and silicon solar cells.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是将太阳能电池的功率输出提高5-6%，并将制造成本降低约5%。通过将提议的有效透明接触（ETC）技术商业化，太阳能系统的平准化电力成本（LCOE）可以大大降低，从而加速采用太阳能来解决温室气体排放问题，并独立于化石燃料。提高太阳能电池的输出功率是降低LCOE最有效的手段之一，ETC技术广泛适用于提高几乎所有类型的太阳能电池的输出功率。低成本的太阳能电池也有望使发展中国家以及无法接入电网的弱势社区受益。在短期内，拟议的ETC技术将为III-V型光伏电池提供更高的功率输出和新的应用，这些光伏电池主要用于航空航天、国防、高性能消费电子和汽车。这些快速增长的市场需要更高功率输出的太阳能电池来增加功能（雷达，激光雷达和监视），通过增加有效载荷能力，目前受可用空间的限制安装太阳能电池。拟议的项目将通过展示新的世界纪录太阳能电池和可扩展的商用III-V型太阳能电池制造来证明ETC技术的商业可行性。从太阳能电池中提取电荷需要金属触点，通常覆盖前表面的5-6%，并阻止阳光照射到下面的光伏材料。在大多数太阳能电池中，由于金属触点阻挡入射阳光而造成的损耗是造成性能损失的最大原因。提出的ETC技术消除了这些损失，从而将太阳能电池的功率输出提高了5-6%。ETC技术已在实验室规模上进行了演示，是世界上性能最高的前接触技术。在研究项目期间，ETCs将与潜在初始客户和世界领先的研究合作伙伴提供的商用III-V型太阳能电池集成。ETCs的技术可行性将通过大幅提高每种电池类型的电池效率来建立，而商业可行性将通过使用适合商业规模的技术、材料和工具成功整合ETCs来建立。这些目标的完成将加速ETC技术商业化的努力，这将广泛增加电力输出并降低太阳能成本。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to boost the power output of solar cells by 5-6% and reduce manufacturing costs by ~5%. By commercializing the proposed effectively transparent contact (ETC) technology the levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) of solar energy systems could be dramatically reduced, resulting in accelerated adoption of solar energy to address greenhouse gas emission and to become independent of fossil fuels. Improving power output of solar cells is one of the most effective means to drive down LCOE, and the ETC technology is broadly applicable to improve the power output of nearly all types of solar cells. Lower-cost solar cells can also be expected to benefit the developing world as well as disadvantaged communities that lack access to the power grid. In the near term, the proposed ETC technology will unlock higher power output and new applications for III-V photovoltaics, which are used predominantly in aerospace, defense, high performance consumer electronics and automotive. These rapidly growing markets require higher power output solar cells to add functionality (RADAR, LIDAR and surveillance) by increasing the payload capacity that is currently limited by the available space to mount the solar cells. The proposed project will demonstrate the commercial viability of the ETC technology by demonstrating a new world record solar cell and scalable fabrication on commercial III-V solar cells. Metal contacts are required for charge extraction from solar cells, typically covering 5-6% of the front surface and blocking sunlight from reaching the photovoltaic material below. These losses due to blocking of incoming sunlight by the metal contacts are the largest single contribution to the performance loss in most solar cells. The proposed ETC technology eliminates these losses and thereby boost the solar cell power output by 5-6%. The ETC technology has been demonstrated at lab scale and is world's highest performing front contact technology. During the research project, ETCs will be integrated with commercial III-V solar cells supplied by prospective initial customers and world-leading research partners. The technical viability of ETCs will be established by achieving dramatic improvements in cell efficiency for each cell type, whereas the commercial viability will be established by successfully integrating the ETCs using techniques, materials, and tools suitable for commercial scale-up. Completion of these objectives will accelerate the efforts to commercialize the ETC technology, which will broadly increase power output and reduce cost of solar energy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.