Corrugation Enabled Asymmetrically Ultrastretchable (95%) Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells with High Efficiency (19%)
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Accepted manuscript
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) DivisionElectrical Engineering Program
Integrated Nanotechnology Lab
MMH Labs
KAUST Grant Number
OSR-2015-Sensors-2707OSR-2016-KKI-2880.
Date
2019-12-06Embargo End Date
2020-12-06Submitted Date
2019-09-04Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/661466
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Stretchable solar cells are of growing interest due their key role in realizing many applications such as wearables and biomedical devices. Ultrastretchability, high energy-efficiency, biocompatibility, and mechanical resilience are essential characteristics of such energy harvesting devices. Here, the development of wafer-scale monocrystalline silicon solar cells with world-record ultrastretchability (95%) and efficiency (19%) is demonstrated using a laser-patterning based corrugation technique. The demonstrated approach transforms interdigitated back contacts (IBC) based rigid solar cells into mechanically reliable but ultrastretchable cells with negligible degradation in the electric performance in terms of current density, open-circuit voltage, and fill factor. The corrugation method is based on the creation of alternating grooves resulting in silicon islands with different shapes. The stretchability is achieved by orthogonally aligning the active silicon islands to the applied tensile stress and using a biocompatible elastomer (Ecoflex) as a stretchable substrate. The resulting mechanics ensure that the brittle silicon areas do not experience significant mechanical stresses upon asymmetrical stretching. Different patterns are studied including linear, diamond, and triangular patterns, each of which results in a different stretchability and loss of active silicon area. Finally, finite element method based simulation is conducted to study the generated deformation in the different patterned solar cells.Citation
El-Atab, N., Qaiser, N., Bahabry, R., & Hussain, M. M. (2019). Corrugation Enabled Asymmetrically Ultrastretchable (95%) Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells with High Efficiency (19%). Advanced Energy Materials, 9(45), 1902883. doi:10.1002/aenm.201902883Sponsors
M.M.H. conceived the idea and directed the project. N.E.-A. designed, fabricated, and characterized the stretchable solar cells and analyzed the results. N.Q. assisted in COMSOL simulations. All authors discussed the results. This publication is based upon work supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award No. Sensor Innovation Initiative OSR-2015-Sensors-2707 and KAUST-KFUPM Special Initiative OSR-2016-KKI-2880.Publisher
WileyJournal
Advanced Energy MaterialsAdditional Links
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/aenm.201970178ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1002/aenm.201902883