Energy

Organic solar cells

Organic solar cells have the potential to become a cost-efficient alternative to silicon solar cells. And they can be a solution for special applications, applied on irregular, flexible or transparent substrates. Imec aims to increase the efficiency and lifetime of organic solar cells, and to develop a manufacturing technology for all layers of organic monolithic modules.

Active layers of organic solar cells are typically 100nm to several µm thick. Therefore only small quantities of active material are needed. In addition, the printing technology to deposit these layers allows for extremely high production throughputs. Taken together, this could lower the costs of such cells with a factor 5 to 10 compared to today's solar cell technologies.

One of the most promising concepts in the field of organic solar cells is that of the bulk donor/acceptor heterojunction. Here, the active layer consists of an intimate mixture of two different conjugated organic materials sandwiched between metallic electrodes.

Imec's R&D pursues 2 main routes. The first one looks at polymer-based organic solar cells in which the active layer can be processed from a solution. Typically this is done through spin-coating, and recently we made successful steps towards using printing technology such as screen printing. Secondly, active organic layers using small conjugated molecules can be deposited by vacuum evaporation.


Solliance alliance - a world-player in thin-film photovoltaics

In 2011, imec joined as a full partner in the Solliance alliance. Solliance is a collaboration between a group of research institutes. The collaboration focuses on thin-film silicon PV, alternatives for CIGS, and organic photovoltaics. Together with the industry, Solliance will both develop short-term solutions and do mid- and long-term R&D. In addition, it will develop and improve generic technologies such as characterization, deposition techniques, processing, or laser technologies. The ambition of Solliance is to strengthen the position of the Eindhoven-Leuven-Aachen triangle (ELAT region) as a world player in thin-film PV. The R&D alliance leverages the knowledge of 250 top researchers, state-of-the-art infrastructure, alignment of research programs, and close cooperation with the solar business community.