SBIR Phase I: Thin Film Solar Cells

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是创建一种变革性的、可持续的光伏解决方案，该解决方案将加速可再生光伏能源技术的成本下降。今天的商业太阳能电池技术在显著提高效率方面的机会有限。该研究项目的产品与商用太阳能电池相结合，将使转换效率和功率输出得到突破性的提高。采用该技术的太阳能电池和组件将提供高功率密度和长期性能稳定性，以推动可再生太阳能的成本降低和太阳能安装项目的加速增长。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将扩大用于太阳能电池设备集成的新型太阳能吸收材料的知识库。从基础科学的角度来看，拟议的研究为科学和工程提供了新的机会，以研究集成到太阳能电池中的高吸收硫化物材料的性能。建议的新型吸收材料不再需要传统的n型硫化物材料来创建p-n结，从而能够开发出独特的太阳能电池配置。这项研究项目将集中于建立吸收层沉积工艺，以控制吸收层的成分和形态，并将其与所产生的太阳能电池的器件性能特征相关联。拟议的研究目标是可重复地展示高设备性能，并建立一条实现持续改进的途径。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to create a transformative, sustainable photovoltaic solution that will accelerate cost declines of renewable photovoltaic energy technologies. Today's commercial solar cell technologies have limited opportunity for significant efficiency improvements. The product of this research project integrated with commercial solar cells will enable breakthrough improvement in conversion efficiency and power output. Solar cells and modules incorporating this technology will provide high power density and long term performance stability to drive cost-reduction of renewable solar energy and accelerated growth of solar installation projects.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will expand the knowledge base on a new class of solar absorbers materials for solar cell device integration. From a basic-science perspective, the proposed research enables new opportunities in science and engineering to investigate performance of superabsorbing chalcogenide materials integrated into solar cells. The new class of proposed absorber materials eliminates the need for the traditional n-type sulfide materials to create the p-n junction, enabling the development of unique solar cell configurations. This research project will focus on establishing absorber deposition processes to control the composition and morphology of the absorber layer and relate it to device performance characteristics of resulting solar cells. The proposed research objectives are to reproducibly demonstrate high device performance and establish a pathway to achieve continued improvement.