Projects

7. Development of Ink-Printed Flexible Solar Cell with Antimony-based Nanostructured Perovskite using Slot-Die Coating

• • Duration: 31/03/2023 to ongoing (up to 31/03/2026) 

  • Fund: Rs. 22,40,200/-

  • Funding Agency: GUJCOST

  • Role: PI

  • Objectives Planned/Achieved (in brief): 

    • • The project aims to optimize processes for fabrication of complete prototype structure of CIGS based 2” solar cell module with feasibility of process scale-up to allow industrial manufacturing. One of the major objectives of the project is to develop a prototype system to deposit different thin layers of the CIGS based solar cell using thermal, DC and RF magnetron sputtering using mask rotating system without breaking the vacuum. The project is also focused on optimization of scribing process for module fabrication and on development of in-house advanced characterization facility for solar PV modules. 

  • Status: Ongoing

6. Development and Fabrication of 2-inch square CIGS Thin Film Solar Cell Module

• • Duration: 01/04/2017 to ongoing (up to 31/03/2020) 

  • Fund: Rs. 1,04,87,600/-

  • Funding Agency: DST-CERI

  • Role: Co-PI

  • Objectives Planned/Achieved (in brief): 

    • • The project aims to optimize processes for fabrication of complete prototype structure of CIGS based 2” solar cell module with feasibility of process scale-up to allow industrial manufacturing. One of the major objectives of the project is to develop a prototype system to deposit different thin layers of the CIGS based solar cell using thermal, DC and RF magnetron sputtering using mask rotating system without breaking the vacuum. The project is also focused on optimization of scribing process for module fabrication and on development of in-house advanced characterization facility for solar PV modules. 

  • Status:  Completed Successfully

5. Development of Blue Light Emitting Diode Packages

• • Duration: 01/04/2017 to ongoing (up to 31/03/2019)

  • Fund: Rs. 49,50,000/-

  • Funding Agency: CPRI, MoP, Govt. of India

  • Role: Team Member

  • Objectives Planned/Achieved (in brief): 

    • • The light emitting diodes are one of the most popular light sources in the recent times due to their high power conversion efficiency, compact size and environmentally benign nature. Presently the LED market is predominantly driven by solid state lighting, automotive, and signs/displays. Although LEDs offer tremendous advantages over the conventional light sources, the cost and the reliability issues are the major concerns that hinder the wide spread adaptation of LEDs. Both, relatively higher cost and the reliability issues have their origins mainly in the packaging processes. The packaging processes contribute a major fraction of the total production cost of the LED devices. Moreover, a little deviation from the optimized process conditions in any of the packaging processes such as dicing, die-bonding, wire-bonding and encapsulation could cause significant reduction in the performance and lifetime of the LEDs. Thus, each of these packaging processes of GaN LEDs is critical in determining the performance of the LEDs and thus requires careful and systematic optimization. The present project aims to address some of the major packaging-issues in development of GaN based LEDs. The ultimate goal of the project is to identify barriers in GaN LED packaging processes and to optimize fabrication processes all the way from chip-bonding to final encapsulation and testing for realization of low-cost LED package with improved light and heat management. It is proposed to develop a complete Blue LED prototype packages with improved performance and reliability in light of industrial production viability.

  • Status:  Completed Successfully

4. Development of thin film solar cells with low-cost, earth-abundant materials by Inkjet Printing

• • Duration: 01/04/2017 to ongoing (up to 31/03/2020) 

  • Fund: Rs. 65,15,564/-

  • Funding Agency: DST-SERB

  • Role: Co-PI

  • Objectives Planned/Achieved (in brief): 

    • • Fabrication of commercial CdTe and CIGS thin film solar cells (TFSCs) currently rely upon vacuum based processes . Even though the costs of these processes are slowly reducing over the years, non-vacuum solution-based processes have higher potential to cut production cost of TFSC. One such solution-based process is the Inkjet printing (IJP), which requires few milliliter of ink to form droplets of picoliter volume to print a thin film (thickness ~ hundred nm) of desired material. The objective of this project is to investigate in detail the development of thin film solar cell fabricated by using solution-based inks of absorber and window materials. The stable inks for absorber materials such as PbS, SnS, CuS, perovskites (MAX3) and window materials such as ZnO with ITO and doped-ZnO will be formulated. The ink properties such as viscosity, surface tension, wettability, composition of the inks, annealing temperature, etc. will be studied. The printing parameters such as drop spacing, jetting frequency, jetting voltage, substrate temperature, etc. will be optimized. This study will help to understand the flow properties of interacting droplets with the substarte or previously deposited layers. 

  • Status:  Completed Successfully

3. Development of Anti-Reflection Coating for Fabrication of Superluminescent Light Emitting Diode 

• • Duration: 01/04/2011 to 30/09/2014 

  • Fund: Rs. 22,40,000/-

  • Funding Agency: DAE-BRNS

  • Role: Principal Investigator

  • Objectives Planned/Achieved (in brief):

    • • Superluminescent Light Emitting Diode (SLED) requires ultra low reflectivity (˂ 0.1 %) over the range of wavelength to eliminate the residual reflection from the facets. Such an ultra low reflectivity over a broad range of wavelength can be achieved by applying multilayer AR coating at the facets of SLED. The main objective of this project was to modulate the reflectivity at facets of SLEDs.  To achieve the high-quality multilayer AR coating, we developed an interactive software for optical design optimization based on Genetic Algorithm. Various designs of multilayered stacks were finalized using this software. To implement these design over the facets of SLEDs, initially the designs were realized on the InP test substrates using e-beam evaporation technique under high vacuum. The coating conditions for the individual layers of the design were first optimized in order to get optical quality films with desired uniform thickness. In order to evaluate the film-quality and the thickness as well as to determine the reflectivity of the developed stack, we established an in-situ and an ex-situ ultra-low reflectivity measurement system in our lab. Various equipments required for the setup viz. Broad band light source, monochromator, optical chopper, Detectors and Lock-In amplifier were procured from the equipment head of this project grant. After optimization of an individual layer, a complete stack is deposited on InP substate. The reflectivity spetra of AR coated substrate were measured using the established set up and were analysed to understand the deposition process further. Finally a prototype SLED device with ultra-low reflective coating on facets has been demonstrated. 

  • Status: Completed Successfully

2. Study of Growth and Opto-Electrical Properties of CZTS Thin-Films for Solar Photovoltaics Applications

• • Duration: 01/04/2014 to 30/06/2016 

  • Fund: Rs. 10,00,000/-

  • Funding Agency: SVNIT-MHRD

  • Role: Principal Investigator

  • Objectives Planned/Achieved (in brief): 

    • • The project aimed to address some of the major material-issues in development of Copper Zinc Tin Sulphide (CZTS) based thin film solar cell. The CZTS thin films have been deposited using successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) and dip coating method. We optimized the deposition conditions for CZTS thin-films in order to get favorable structural and optical properties for its use as an absorber layer in thin-film solar cells. Finally a set of complete CZTS based solar PV device was fabricated using SILAR and the performance of these devices under different growth conditions were analysed.  

  • Status: Completed Successfully

1. Electrophysical properties (temperature coefficient of resistance and strain sensitivity) of multilayer film system Cr/Fe and Gd/Fe 

• • Duration: 27/06/2008 to 31/12/2010

  • Fund: Rs. 5,49,000/-

  • Funding Agency: DST Indo-Ukraine Project

  • Role: Team Member

  • Objectives Planned/Achieved (in brief): 

    • • Electrophysical properties of metallic thin films based on Cu/Cr and Fe/Cr systems have been investigated under this project. It is shown that the longitudinal gauge factor of two-layer films is significantly greater as compared with one-layer films with similar thickness. Such an increased longitudinal gauge factor for bi-layer films has been explained using interface and intensive grain–boundary electron scattering. It is also demonstrated that the longitudinal gauge factor increases in transition from elastic to plastic zone.

  • Status: Completed Successfully