World record efficiency in ultra-flexible crystalline silicon solar cell

Advanced classes of modern application require new generation of versatile solar cells showcasing extreme mechanical resilience, large scale, low cost and excellent power conversion efficiency. Conventional crystalline silicon-based solar cell offer one of the most highly-efficient power sources but a key challenge remains to attain its mechanical resilience whilst preserving electrical performance. Here we show, a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) based integration strategy where corrugation architecture enables an ultra-flexible and low-cost solar cell modules from bulk mono-crystalline large scale (127 x 127 cm2) silicon solar wafer with 17% power conversion efficiency. This periodic corrugated array benefit from an interchangeable solar cell segmentation scheme which preserves the active silicon thickness of 240 mm and achieves flexibility via an interdigitated back contacts. These cells can reversibly withstand high mechanical stress and can be deformed to zigzag and bifacial modules. Theses corrugation silicon-based solar cells offer ultra-flexibility with high stability over 1000 bending cycles including convex and concave bending to broaden the application spectrum. Finally, we show the smallest bending radius of curvature lower than 140 mm of the back contacts that carries the solar cells segments. 

Corrugation Architecture Enabled Ultra-Flexible Wafer-Scale High-Efficiency Mono-crystalline Silicon Solar Cell

R. R. Bahabry, A. T. Kutbee, S. M. Khan, A. C. Sepulveda, I. P. Wicaksono, M. M. Nour, N. Wehbe, A. S. Almislem, M. T. Ghoneim, G. A. Torres Sevilla, A. Syed, S. F. Shaikh, M. M. Hussain

Adv. Energy Mater. (2017)