Capabilities
Through major collaborative research projects with partners in the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC), the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP), and Cooperative Research Centre Projects (CRC-P), an extensive suite of capabilities has been established at CSIRO’s Flexible Electronics Laboratory (FEL) in Clayton, Victoria to translate printed solar cell technology from the laboratory to manufacturing using commercially available roll-to-roll (R2R) printing equipment.
World-Leading Solar Cell Printing & Testing
In addition to our recently launched new Pilot-Scale Flexible Printed PV Facility, other facilities that have allowed us to transition from lab-scale research activities towards realising commercialisation include state-of-the-art equipment such as a R2R screen-printer capable of producing up to 6,000 units per hour, and numerous other lab-scale and pilot-scale printing, coating, and film-handling equipment. The FEL also offers an outstanding range of facilities for charasterising solar cells of various shapes and sizes under solar simulators, and for conducting stability studies of encapsulated devices under accelerated and outdoor conditions. Our team has extensive expertise in optimising the efficiency of printed solar cells and maximising their durability through encapsulation methodologies.
Customised Rapid-Screening Platform
We have designed and constructed several unique slot-die coaters enabling lab-scale fabrication of solar cells on a variety of substrates up to 100 mm × 100 mm using a coating process that is directly scalable to industrial-scale R2R printing and coating processes. These coaters enable routine and rapid evaluation of materials and coating conditions for their suitability in larger-scale R2R printing/coating.
R2R Solar Cell Printing & Coating Test Bed
Our benchtop R2R coating machines can deposit inks on flexible substrates up to 150 mm wide, in run lengths of more than 50 m. These commercially available units have been modified by our team to operate in a variety of reverse-gravure or slot-die coating modes and is used routinely to produce our standard-design 100 cm2 PV modules used to benchmark performance of materials and processes. To date, our record Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) for standard modules produced using this benchtop R2R test bed with carbon electrode is more than 11%; meanwhile single cells similarly R2R-produced have displayed record PCE over 18%.
Pilot-Scale R2R Printed PV Film
The pilot-scale R2R slot-die coating and screen-printing lines at CSIRO are capable of producing PV films on flexible substrates up to 350 mm wide, in run lengths of more than 200 m. With minor modifications, such as the development of in-line monitoring systems for film thickness and PV performance, this commercially available equipment has already produced around 300 m2 of PV film for demonstrating the technical feasibility of this technology.
Gloveboxes & Other Benchtop Equipment
Several state-of-the-art gloveboxes are dedicated to various activities that require a controlled environment. Thin-film deposition systems are available for thermally depositing a wide variety of materials including metal electrodes, and small organic and inorganic molecules for lab-scale solar cell fabrication. Several spin-coaters in gloveboxes or fume-hoods are available. Other bench-top printing/coating equipment available includes doctor blade, bar coater, gravure coater, amongst others.
