Germany joins organic solar cell hunt
The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) will fund a joint research project on organic solar cells by Germany's Hahn-Meitner-Institute (HMI), chemicals supplier Covion Organic Semiconductors and Aixtron. Within this project AIXTRON will install an organic vapour phase deposition (OVPD) system at the HMI for the deposition of organic thin films.
Organic materials appear to be a promising candidate for application in low cost thin film solar cells. While conversion efficiencies do not match that of silicon, it is hoped that the materials processing required will be lower cost. First samples have achieved conversion efficiency of more than 5%. In the mid to long-term the researchers hope that organic solar cells will achieve efficiencies even higher than Si thin film solar cells. A further advantage is that the materials can be more eco friendly. Transparent and flexible substrates are another attractive feature.
Aixtron has an exclusive licensing agreement and a joint development programme with Universal Display (UDC) in the USA. Aixtron has developed a low cost, high-throughput process, tailored to the needs of high-end device mass production for high resolution full-colour organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays and other organic products.
