Automotive Fabrication of Thin Films for Perovskite Solar Cells

Wednesday, 16 October 2019: 09:20
Room 224 (The Hilton Atlanta)
A. H. Ghahremani, B. Martin (University of Louisville), and T. Druffel (University of Louisville, Conn Center for Renewable Energy)
Thin film organic-inorganic perovskite photovoltaics have undergone rapid performance improvement and has therefore provided the researchers a great tendency towards large scale manufacturing through cost-effective automated manufacturing. The automotive techniques include three main processes of prior preparation processing, the main deposition step, and a post process thermal annealing to provide the final product with superior quality. Successful fabrication of supreme thin film photovoltaics requires the application of instruments and techniques which can provide rapid manufacturing to meet the demanding market needs, and the use of cheap and versatile fabrication methods to provide the lowest final product price with respect to maximum device quality. In this manuscript we address the quality of the deposited thin films, particularly for thin film perovskite solar cells (PSCs), after being deposited and annealed through the favorable roll to roll automotive steps. These techniques include the use of ultrasonic spray and slot-die mechanisms to coat the thin films, followed by rapid annealing of the thin film materials through rapid photonic annealing. The morphology and phase purity of the deposited films will be illustrated through characterization techniques of Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. This study can provide researchers with better understanding of thin film fabrication through automated manufacturing, particularly through roll to roll, and provide them an opportunity for better selection of the methods towards optimal thin film manufacturing.