Embedded Files
University of California, San Diego
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
MAE 156B: Senior Design Project (Spring 2024)
Figure 1. Layers of the perovskite solar cell package used to conduct tests
Figure 2. Insulated roller mill with heat strips
Project Background
Project Background
This project was created to help increase the viability of perovskites as a semiconductor material in photovoltaic solar cells by improving the efficiency of manufacturing.
Silicon is the most common semiconductor material currently used in photovoltaic technology. A newly introduced material, perovskites, are starting to take the stage in solar cell research. Perovskites can absorb more sunlight than crystalline silicon and are about 1000 times thinner than silicon layers (Solaires, 2022). The use of perovskite in tandem solar cells could catapult the solar industry through significantly increasing the power conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells.
The current manufacturing process in the UCSD Fenning lab consists of two hot plates which are compressed together with the cell package (Fig.1) in between to apply sufficiently high temperature and pressure to bond the perovskite and glass together (lamination). However, this batch-wise, one-at-a-time process is very time-consuming and laborious. The Fenning research group believes that an in-line automated lamination system would increase time-efficiency and production output. This effort has gained support from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
Our team designed and prototyped a heated lamination roller system (Fig.2) in which we aimed to transform the current batch-wise, static thermal pressing to a more efficient, faster in-line rolling process.
Objectives
Objectives
The objective of this project was to design and prototype a heated lamination roller system for our current small-scale manufacturing of perovskite solar cells with future goals of achieving large-scale manufacturing. We wanted to design a lamination roller system capable of: 1) preheating and maintaining the cell package and rollers between 120℃ and 150℃ before and during compression, 2) applying sufficient pressure (~4MPa) to ensure lamination of perovskite onto the glass faces, 3) achieving a perovskite-glass bonding area of 90% and 4) scaling up to the sizes of current solar cells. The overarching goal of our senior capstone project was to deliver a working prototype in-line device that could initiate bonding and lamination. The functional requirements that were needed of our lamination roller system are listed below.
Functional Requirements
Functional Requirements
Pressure film showing distribution and range of applied pressures
Pressure
Pressure
Meet minimum required pressure (~4MPa) to initiate bonding
IR thermal camera image of fully-heated roller mill at ~150℃ with polyimide strips at ~276℃
Temperature
Maintain cell package and rollers between 120℃ and 150°C before & during compression
Page updated
Report abuse