SBIR Phase I: Thin Silicon Solar Cells for Aerospace Applications

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是使新兴和快速增长的太阳能航空航天设备市场成为可能。太阳能电池阵列通常是卫星、无人机和飞艇最昂贵的组件，将其成本降低10倍，同时将重量减轻5倍，并使太阳能电池具有灵活性，这可以打破私营航空航天经济增长的主要障碍之一。薄硅太阳能电池的主要目标市场是低地球轨道上数千颗新卫星的星座，用于提供全球卫星互联网和物联网设备通信。全球互联网可以在三个方面对人类生活产生更广泛的影响：（1）使世界范围内的通信成为可能，（2）通过提供互联网连接刺激发展中国家的经济增长，（3）通过提供教育机会，确保言论自由和提供电子民主的工具来建立更可持续的社会。另一个主要目标市场是用于监视和远程监控的无人机以及用于货物运输的飞艇。在未来，薄硅太阳能电池可以成为太阳能太空运输、小行星采矿以及火星和月球殖民的最终能源。该项目将开发两项创新技术，使航空航天应用的薄硅太阳能电池能够大规模生产。在商业上使用薄硅太阳能电池有两个主要障碍。首先，薄硅电池的效率下降了4- 6%。其次，10微米厚的硅晶片不能使用标准的硅太阳能电池制造方法制造。Regher Solar开发了两项创新技术，可实现20%效率的薄硅电池的大规模生产。第一个创新是在较厚的硅晶片上加工10微米厚的硅晶片，以使用它们进行处理。第二项创新是使用硅异质结技术和铜金属化，当电池厚度仅为10微米时，可实现最高效率。该SBIR提案的总体目标是开发基于薄硅技术的低成本、高效率、灵活、可靠和可制造的太阳能电池，用于快速增长的太阳能航空航天设备市场。第一阶段的具体目标是：（1）确定工艺流程，（2）在10微米厚的硅片上实现22%AM0效率、2000 W/kg比功率、200 W/m2功率密度，（3）对薄硅太阳能电池进行全面的可靠性测试;（4）展示柔性毯子。该奖项反映了NSF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 of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to enable the emerging and rapidly growing markets of solar powered aerospace devices. The solar array is often the most expensive component of satellites, drones and airships and reducing their cost 10 times while also reducing the weight 5 times and making solar cells flexible can disrupt one of the main barriers for the growing private aerospace economy. The major target market for thin silicon solar cells is the constellations of thousands of new satellites at the lower earth orbit for providing Global Satellite Internet and IoT device communications. Global Internet can make a broader impact on the human life in three areas: (1) enable worldwide communications, (2) stimulate economic growth in developing countries by providing Internet connection, (3) establish more sustainable societies by providing access to education, ensuring the freedom of speech and providing the instruments for electronic democracy. Another major target market is drones for surveillance and remote monitoring and airships for cargo transportation. In the future, thin silicon solar cells can become the ultimate source of energy for solar powered space transportation, asteroid mining and colonization of Mars and the Moon. The proposed project will develop two innovations which can enable mass production of thin Si solar cells for aerospace applications. There are two main roadblocks for using thin Si solar cells commercially. First, is that efficiency of thin silicon cells drops by 4-6%. Second, is that 10-micron-thick Si wafers cannot be manufactured using standard Si solar cell fabrication methods. Regher Solar has developed two innovations to enable mass production of thin Si cells with 20% efficiency. The first innovation is processing of 10-micron-thick on thicker Si wafers to use them for handling. The second innovation is using silicon heterojunction technology with copper metallization, which achieves the highest efficiency when the cell is only 10 microns thick. The overall goal of this SBIR proposal is to develop lower cost, high efficiency, flexible, reliable and manufacturable solar cells based on thin Si technology for the rapidly growing market of solar powered aerospace devices. The specific goals of this Phase I project are: (1) finalize a process flow, (2) achieve 22% AM0 efficiency, 2000 W/kg specific power, 200 W/m2 power density on a 10-micron-thick wafer; (3) conduct a comprehensive reliability testing of thin Si solar cells; (4) demonstrate flexible blankets.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.