SBIR Phase I: Low-cost Domestic Additive Manufacturing for Silicon 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。加法制造工艺将首次应用于硅，以便在不像目前制造中使用的浪费工艺的情况下，产生与硅片相同的性能。如果成功，这种附加方式可以将太阳能供应链中仍然存在的部分--硅提炼和太阳能组件组装--联系起来，为这项关键能源技术建立一个完整的国内供应链。这一供应链可以：(A)用现成的设备建造，成本是建造传统硅片和电池工厂的三分之一；(B)与进口硅片太阳能电池相比，光伏太阳能电池的制造成本降低了一半；以及(C)太阳能电池制造的能耗减少了70%，用水量减少了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。这个SBIR第一阶段项目旨在证明晶体硅光伏太阳能电池的新架构和附加制造工艺的可行性，这种电池通过本地供应链以更低的成本提供与传统硅晶片太阳能电池同等的性能。工艺流程中的步骤改编自传统的太阳能电池加工或微电子等邻近行业，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进行共同优化，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，以及它们自己的相关工艺变量：(A)时间、温度、压力、气体流量和磁力；(B)溶剂、溶液浓度、涂层间隙和涂层速度；(C)温度与时间。每一步的这些工艺变量将与电池组中各层的物理属性相关，如厚度、化学计量比和成品电池的性能，以产生具有令投资者、合作伙伴和客户信服的性能的原型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.