Design, Development and Manufacture of High-Efficiency Low-Cost Solar Modules Based on CIGS PVICs

We describe the design, development and manufacture of solar power panels based on photovoltaic integrated circuits (PVICs) with high-quality high-uniformity Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) thin films produced with the unique combination of low-cost ink-based and physical vapor deposition (PVD) based nanoengineered precursor thin films and a reactive transfer printing method. Reactive transfer is a two-stage process relying on chemical reaction between two separate precursor films to form CIGS, one deposited on the substrate and the other on a printing plate in the first stage. In the second stage, these precursors are brought into intimate contact and rapidly reacted under pressure in the presence of an electrostatic field while heat is applied. The use of two independent thin films provides the benefits of independent composition and flexible deposition technique optimization, and eliminates pre-reaction prior to the synthesis of CIGS. High quality CIGS with large grains on the order of several microns, and of preferred crystallographic orientation, are formed in just several minutes based on compositional and structural analysis by XRF, SIMS, SEM and XRD. Cell efficiencies of 14% and module efficiencies of 12% have been achieved using this method. When atmospheric pressure deposition of inks is utilized for the precursor films, the approach additionally provides lower energy consumption, higher throughput, and further reduced capital equipment cost with higher uptime.