SBIR Phase I: High Speed Laser Crystallization (HSLC) of Aluminum doped ZnO (AZO) nanoparticles at Room Temperature for High Performance Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) layer.

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发高速激光结晶（HSLC）的溶液沉积铝掺杂氧化锌（AZO）纳米颗粒层，以降低薄膜太阳能电池的制造成本。AZO是一种很有前途的透明导电氧化物。TCO层的沉积是薄膜太阳能电池制造过程中最昂贵的步骤之一。最初的研究已经表明，AZO层的HSLC结晶产生小于3 × 10-4欧姆-厘米的电阻率和380厘米2/Vs的最大迁移率（比其他沉积技术，如溅射高1-2个数量级）。 拟议的工作将研究AZO纳米颗粒油墨的高速激光结晶，以证明通过溶液沉积纳米颗粒的HSLC大批量生产高性能TCO层的可行性。 技术里程碑包括：TCO沉积工艺比现有技术快2个数量级，在400-1500 nm范围内的透射率超过90%，薄层电阻低于10欧姆/平方。 高速工艺的缩放和优化将在多个大面积电池上进行演示，目标是使用溅射AZO层的基线电池的相对效率提高5%。该项目的更广泛/商业潜力将通过集成到制造中的新设备来实现，以生产高效CIGS太阳能组件。几乎一半的世界？的CIGS太阳能制造能力已在美国建立。这SBIR的发展有可能提高制造的CIGS太阳能电池效率超过5%（相对），并降低每瓦成本超过10%。这将有助于将灵活的CIGS太阳能产品推向市场领先地位，发展美国制造业，并实现太阳能的大规模采用。将该技术集成到其他光伏器件叠层（如CIGS吸收层）以及TCO层（本提案的主题）中，到2020年每年可创造超过40亿美元的经济价值。这一过程也有可能改善其他商品薄膜材料，如用于轻型纸电池，有机固态照明，柔性显示器和RFID标签的材料。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop high speed laser crystallization (HSLC) of solution deposited aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) nanoparticle layers in order to reduce the manufacturing cost of thin film solar cells. AZO is a promising transparent conductive oxide (TCO). Deposition of TCO layers is one of the most expensive steps during the manufacturing process of thin film solar cells. Initial studies has already shown that HSLC crystallization of AZO layers yielded resistivity less than 3 x 10-4 ohms-cm and a maximum mobility of 380 cm2/vs (1-2 orders higher than the other deposition techniques such as sputtering). The proposed work will investigate high speed laser crystallization of AZO nanoparticles inks to prove the viability of high volume production of high performance TCO layers by HSLC of solution deposited nanoparticles. Technical milestones include: TCO deposition process speeds up to 2 orders faster over current techniques, transmission over 90% in 400-1500 nm range, and sheet resistance under 10 ohm/square. Scaling and optimization of the high-speed processes will be demonstrated on multiple large-area cells with a goal of a relative efficiency improvement of 5% over baseline cells using a sputtered AZO layer.The broader/ commercial potential of this project will be achieved through new equipment for integration into manufacturing to produce high-efficiency CIGS solar modules. Nearly half of the world?s CIGS solar manufacturing capacity has been established in the U.S. This SBIR development has the potential to improve manufactured CIGS solar cell efficiency by over 5% (relative) and reduce cost per watt by more than 10%. This would aid in moving flexible CIGS solar products into a market lead position, grow U.S. manufacturing, and enable large-scale adoption of solar. Integrating this technology into other PV device stack layers (such as the CIGS absorber layer) as well as the TCO layer, which is the subject of this proposal, could create over $4 billion in economic value annually by 2020. This process also has the potential to improve other commodity thin-film materials such as those used in lightweight paper batteries, organic solid state lighting, flexible displays, and RFID tags.