Approach to liberating solar voltaic structures from the fundamental efficiency-limiting confines of conventional lattice parameter substrates

将太阳能光伏结构从传统晶格参数基板的基本效率限制中解放出来的方法

• 批准号: 463029-2014
• 负责人: Arès, Richard
• 金额: $ 14.5万
• 依托单位: Université de Sherbrooke
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Strategic Projects - Group
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=577008
• 关键词: Approach; liberating; solar; voltaic; structures

This project addresses renewable energy sources, and builds on existing Canadian capability to develop the world's most efficient photovoltaic cells for solar energy systems. Emerging from expertise gathered in Canada's high-tech sector over the past 10-20 years, this project enables two university groups (Université de Sherbrooke and University of Ottawa) to develop their existing collaborations with Canadian-based OSEMI Canada Inc. OSEMI Canada (based in Richmond and Sherbrooke, Québec) designs and produces epitaxy reactors, also providing epitaxy growth supply services to device manufacturers and researchers. The project targets improving the performance towards the 50% mark, so that concentrated photovoltaics systems can deliver significantly more energy per year and lower the system install cost. High efficiency solar cells are presently made by growing very thin semiconductor layers onto expensive substrates, but the cell efficiency is still limited by the confines of allowable mismatch between the crystal properties of the substrate and those of the grown layers. This project aims to overcome this physical and economic limitation by 'engineering' the needed substrate properties in lower cost materials, with improved matching of crystal structure, allowing the use of higher quality alloys better adapted for high efficiency solar cells. Success in this will open the door to greater economies through use of 're-usable substrates' as well as broad potential for more economic manufacture of other semiconductor devices (e.g: power transistors) beyond the immediate need for high efficiency solar cells. The process for making these substrates (recently developed at USherbrooke) patterns nanostructures into the surface of a semiconductor. Researchers working on this project will experience all the steps from device design to manufacture and system testing in an industrial environment, and will emerge from the project activity as highly-sought-after HQP skills in an exciting and expanding market sector (growing at 25%/year). The team plans to use this project to follow on very successful previous and ongoing projects such as the SUNRISE and 4CPV-SPG projects.

该项目涉及可再生能源，并建立在加拿大现有能力的基础上，为太阳能系统开发世界上最高效的光伏电池。该项目基于过去10-20年在加拿大高科技领域积累的专业知识，使两个大学集团(舍布鲁克大学和渥太华大学)能够发展与总部位于加拿大的OSEMI加拿大公司的现有合作。OSEMI加拿大公司(总部位于魁北克省里士满和舍布鲁克)设计和生产外延反应器，还为设备制造商和研究人员提供外延生长供应服务。该项目的目标是将性能提高到50%大关，这样集中式光伏系统每年可以提供显著更多的能量，并降低系统安装成本。 目前，高效率太阳能电池是通过在昂贵的衬底上生长非常薄的半导体层来制造的，但电池效率仍然受到衬底和生长层的晶体特性之间允许不匹配的限制。该项目旨在克服这一物理和经济限制，方法是在低成本材料中“设计”所需的衬底性能，并改进晶体结构匹配，从而使更高质量的合金更适用于高效太阳能电池。这方面的成功将通过使用“可重复使用的衬底”打开更大经济的大门，以及在迫切需要高效率太阳能电池之外更经济地制造其他半导体设备(例如功率晶体管)的广阔潜力。制造这些衬底的工艺(最近在USherbrooke开发)在半导体表面形成了纳米结构。 从事该项目的研究人员将在工业环境中体验从设备设计到制造和系统测试的所有步骤，并将从项目活动中脱颖而出，成为令人兴奋和不断扩大的市场部门(以每年25%的速度增长)中备受欢迎的HQP技能。该团队计划利用这个项目来跟进非常成功的先前和正在进行的项目，如日出和4CPV-SPG项目。