Recent Advances in Electroplating Based CIGS Solar Cell Fabrication

Electrodeposition based CIGS technology developed by SoloPower is highly attractive route for preparation of precursor layers due to its low cost, efficient materials utilization and scalability to high-volume manufacturing. Several aqueous electroplating solutions both in acidic and alkaline regimes are formulated and optimized for achieving stable plating solutions for roll-to-roll electrodeposition that give adherent and high quality films with controllable molar compositions. An optimized rapid thermal annealing approach was developed to achieve device-quality CIGS absorber layers. In this paper, we discuss various electrodeposition approaches for CIGS precursor formation and present a summary of the recent results for SoloPower's flexible cells.