All sub-nanosecond laser monolithic interconnection of OPV modules

Kubis P, Winter J, Gavrilova A, Hennel M, Schlosser S, Richter I, Distler A, Heyder M, Kery S, Lenk P, Geiger S, Brabec C, Huber HP, Egelhaaf HJ (2019)

Publication Language: English

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Progress in Photovoltaics Wiley-Blackwell

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Book Volume: 27

Pages Range: 479-490

Journal Issue: 6

DOI: 10.1002/pip.3115

Abstract

Although green femtosecond lasers provide outstanding quality and wide processing
windows for monolithic interconnection of the individual cells in organic photovoltaic
(OPV) modules, they are hardly used in commercial applications, due to cost reasons.
In this work, a process has been developed that allows the monolithic interconnection
in OPV modules with an infrared sub‐nanosecond laser exclusively, without
compromising the performance of the modules. While the photoactive layer is
removed easily by green femtosecond pulses without damaging the bottom electrode,
this is not possible for infrared nanosecond pulses, due to their much larger optical
penetration length, which significantly exceeds the thickness of the active layer and
is well absorbed by the indium tin oxide (ITO) layer. This leads to damage of the
ITO bottom electrode, which in turn compromises the functionality of the module.
By systematically varying single‐pulse laser fluence and spatial pulse overlap, the laser
parameters are optimized in such a way that the contact area between the residues of
the metal oxide bottom electrode and the silver nanowire top electrode is maximized
so that the electrical resistances of the contacts are sufficiently small not to affect
device performance. This is demonstrated by presenting large‐area OPV modules
based on the well‐characterized reference system P3HT:PCBM that show efficiencies
of up to 2.4%. This achievement opens up the way towards reliable roll‐to‐roll
(R2R) laser patterning processes with sub‐nanosecond lasers and thus represents a
breakthrough with respect to cost‐effective R2R manufacturing of OPV modules,
due to grossly reduced investment and maintenance costs for laser sources.

Authors with CRIS profile

Andreas Distler Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) Christoph Brabec Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) Hans-Joachim Egelhaaf Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET)

Involved external institutions

Bayerisches Zentrum für Angewandte Energieforschung e.V. (ZAE Bayern) DE Germany (DE) Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften München DE Germany (DE) InnoLas Holding GmbH DE Germany (DE) LS Laser Systems GmbH DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Kubis, P., Winter, J., Gavrilova, A., Hennel, M., Schlosser, S., Richter, I.,... Egelhaaf, H.-J. (2019). All sub-nanosecond laser monolithic interconnection of OPV modules. Progress in Photovoltaics, 27(6), 479-490. https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3115

MLA:

Kubis, Peter, et al. "All sub-nanosecond laser monolithic interconnection of OPV modules." Progress in Photovoltaics 27.6 (2019): 479-490.

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