57 research outputs found
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Inkjet Printing of Nickel and Silver Metal Solar Cell Contacts
With about 125,000 terawatts of solar power striking the earth at any given moment, solar energy may be the only renewable energy resource with enough capacity to meet a major portion of our future energy needs. Thin-fi lm technologies and solution deposition processes seek to reduce manufacturing costs in order to compete with conventional coal-based electricity. Inkjet printing, as a derivative of the direct-write process, offers the potential for low-cost, material-effi cient deposition of the metals for photovoltaic contacts. Advances in contact metallizations are important because they can be employed on existing silicon technology and in future-generation devices. We report on the atmospheric, non-contact deposition of nickel (Ni) and silver (Ag) metal patterns on glass, Si, and ZnO substrates at 180–220°C from metal-organic precursor inks using a Dimatix inkjet printer. Near-bulk conductivity Ag contacts were successfully printed up to 4.5 μm thick and 130 μm wide on the silicon nitride antirefl ective coating of silicon solar cells. Thin, high-resolution Ni adhesion-layer lines were printed on glass and zinc oxide at 80 μm wide and 55 nm thick with a conductivity two orders of magnitude less than the bulk metal. Additionally, the ability to print multi-layered metallizations (Ag on Ni) on transparent conducting oxides was demonstrated and is promising for contacts in copper-indium-diselenide (CIS) solar cells. Future work will focus on further improving resolution, printing full contact devices, and investigating copper inks as a low-cost replacement for Ag contacts
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Solution Deposition of Amorphous IZO Films by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis: Preprint
This study investigates atmospheric-pressure solution deposition routes as an alternative to these traditional high-vacuum techniques
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Solution Deposition of Amorphous IZO Films By Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis (Poster)
This study investigates atmospheric-pressure solution deposition routes as an alternative to these traditional high-vacuum techniques
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Direct-Write Contacts: Metallization and Contact Formation; Preprint
Using direct-write approaches in photovoltaics for metallization and contact formation can significantly reduce the cost per watt of producing photovoltaic devices. Inks have been developed for various materials, such as Ag, Cu, Ni and Al, which can be used to inkjet print metallizations for various kinds of photovoltaic devices. Use of these inks results in metallization with resistivities close to those of bulk materials. By means of inkjet printing a metallization grid can be printed with better resolution, i.e. smaller lines, than screen-printing. Also inks have been developed to deposit transparent conductive oxide films by means of ultrasonic spraying
Plasma Dynamics
Contains research objectives and summary of research on twenty-one projects split into three sections, with four sub-sections in the second section and reports on twelve research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant ENG75-06242)U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (Contract E(11-1)-2766)U.S. Energy Research and Development Agency (Contract E(11-1)-3070)U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (Contract E(11-1)-3070)Research Laboratory of Electronics, M.I.T. Industrial Fellowshi
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