Photovoltaic building blocks

Photovoltaics (PV), better known as solar cells, are now a common day sight on many rooftops in Denmark.The installed capacity of PV systems worldwide is growing exponentially1 and is the third most importantrenewable energy source today. The cost of PV is decreasing fast with ~10%/year but to make it directcompetitive with fossil energy sources a further reduction is needed.

By increasing the efficiency of the solar cells one gain an advantage through the whole chain of cost. So that per produced Watt of power less material is spent, installation costs are lower, less area is used etc. With an average efficiency of about 15% for commercial Silicon solar cells there is still much to gain.

DTU Danchip provides research facilities, equipment and expertise for the building blocks that comprises fabricating the efficient solar cell. In order to get more of the sun light into the device we provide thin film coating tools to depositand develop anti-reflection filters by means of sputtering or e-beam evaporation.

To reduce the area taken up by metallic contacts transparent conducting oxides like Aluminium doped ZincOxide (AZO) and Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) can be deposited. We also support research and development of new 2D materials like graphene that is a promising candidate for cheap highly transparent contacts.

Another way to increase efficiency is to structure the active layers indevice so that more light is absorbed. This can be done in one of our advanced dry etching machines either mask-less to form so-called Black Silicon or using micro- or even nanostructured masks to form pyramids or similar structures.

These facilities support both the predominant silicon technology but also competing new technologies like thin film solar cellsand organic photovoltaics. They can further benefit from our resources within spin- and spray deposition techniques and a newly installed Atomic Layer Deposition chamber that brings layert hickness control down to the atomic level.

Even more advanced multi-junction devices based on compounds from group III and V has brought the world record efficiency up to 44.7%2. Such efforts we also provide service for through our tools designed for this material system.Our team of process generalists can guide and advice you to utilize our clean room facilities most efficiently while our process specialists can help you to develop new processes and fabrication recipes.

Our dedicated technical staff supports the infrastructure and keeps the facilities running for your development or research efforts with an uptime of tools of more than85%