SBIR Phase I: Low-cost Domestic Additive Manufacturing for Silicon Solar Cells

小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是证明在不使用硅片的情况下生产高效率、低成本的晶体硅光伏太阳能电池的可行性。增材制造工艺将首次应用于硅，以生产与硅晶圆相当的性能，而不需要当前制造中使用的浪费工艺。如果成功，这种增材方法可以连接美国仍然存在的太阳能供应链的各个部分——硅精炼和太阳能组件组装，为这一关键能源技术建立一个完整的国内供应链。这个供应链可以：(a)用现成的设备建造，成本是建造传统硅晶片和电池工厂的三分之一；(b)与进口硅晶片太阳能电池相比，光伏太阳能电池的制造成本降低了一半；(c)太阳能电池制造过程中的能耗降低了70%，用水量降低了90%。这种低工厂和生产成本的结合可以推动太阳能行业所需的增长，以支持国家的脱碳目标，同时创造数万个国内就业机会。该SBIR一期项目旨在证明晶体硅光伏太阳能电池的新架构和增材制造工艺的可行性，该工艺可以在当地供应链上以更低的成本提供与传统硅晶圆基太阳能电池相当的性能。工艺流程中的步骤改编自传统的太阳能电池加工或邻近的工业，如微电子，但它们正在以新的方式结合起来，以实现这种太阳能电池设计。这些步骤将通过一系列设计的实验共同优化以生产高效电池。这些工艺通常分为三类：(1)化学或物理气相沉积，(2)基于溶液的涂层和(3)热退火，它们有自己相关的工艺变量：(a)时间，温度，压力，气体流速和磁力；(b)溶剂、溶液浓度、涂层间隙、涂层速度；(c)温度与时间的关系。每个步骤的这些过程变量将与电池堆中各层的物理特性（如厚度、化学计量和成品电池的性能）相关，从而生产出具有对投资者、合作伙伴和客户具有吸引力的性能原型。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 the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to demonstrate the feasibility of producing high-efficiency, low-cost, crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar cells without using silicon wafers. For the first time, additive manufacturing processes will be applied to silicon in order to produce equivalent performance to silicon wafers without the wasteful processes used in current manufacturing. If successful, this additive approach can link the parts of the solar supply chain that still exist in the United States—silicon refining and solar module assembly, establishing a full domestic supply chain for this critical energy technology. This supply chain can: (a) be built with off-the-shelf equipment at a third the cost of building traditional silicon wafer and cell factories, (b) cut the cost of photovoltaic solar cell manufacturing in half compared to imported silicon wafer-based solar cells, and (c) reduce energy consumption in solar cell manufacturing by 70% and reduce water consumption by 90%. This combination of low factory and production costs can drive the growth needed in the solar industry to support the nation’s decarbonization goals while creating tens of thousands of domestic jobs.This SBIR Phase I project seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel architecture and additive manufacturing process for crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar cells that provide equivalent performance to traditional silicon wafer-based solar cells at lower cost with a local supply chain. The steps in the process flow are adapted from traditional solar cell processing or adjacent industries like microelectronics, but they are being combined in new way to realize this solar cell design. These steps will be co-optimized to produce high-efficiency cells using a series of designed experiments. These processes typically fall into three categories: (1) chemical or physical vapor deposition, (2) solution-based coating, and (3) thermal annealing, with their own relevant process variables: (a) time, temperature, pressure, gas flow rates, and magnetic power; (b) solvent, solution concentration, coating gap, and coating speed; (c) temperature vs. time. These process variables for each step will be correlated to physical properties of the layers in the cell stack such as thickness, stoichiometry, and performance of the finished cells to produce a prototype with performance that is compelling to investors, partners, and customers.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.