Perovskites and much more at the IPVF Scientific Day

With the launching of the STaFF project, which aims at scaling up perovskite mini-modules currently produced at IPVF on 10×10 cm2 substrates up to 30×60 cm2 in a new prototyping line, perovskites were the topic to address in the morning session of the IPVF scientific day. The program – put together by the scientific committee members – gathered top level presenters who covered all the aspects of the science and technology of perovskites, from low TRL research up to pilot line production.

• The session opened with a presentation by Professor Jacky Even on “2D multi-layered perovskites fundamental properties and their application to photovoltaics”. In his talk Professor Even presented recent experimental and theoretical studies on excitons, the formation of edge states, hot carrier effects and carrier localization. He showed how the combination of 2D and 3D bilayer structures using new versatile growth methods and the lattice mismatch concept can lead to enhanced stability for 3D-based perovskite solar cells.

• In his presentation Professor Christoph Brabec gave a broad overview on the ways to accelerate the optimization of process parameters by combining Gaussian process regression and Bayessian optimization. This is certainly a must to reduce the time required to move from low TRL research to industrialisation of the perovskite technology.

• Scaling up of the processes was the topic covered by Dr. Yinghuan Kuang. By using more scalable blade coating to deposit both perovskite and Me-4PACz self-assembled monolayer on sputtered NiOx, aperture area module efficiencies of 19.7%, 17.5%, and 15.5% were achieved for mini-modules of 4, 16, and 100 cm2. Moreover, he presented ~ 800 cm2 semi-transparent and opaque modules exhibiting PCEs of 16.3% and ~18%, respectively.

• Scaling up was also addressed by Professor Aldo di Carlo for wide gap semi-transparent perovskites solar cells and modules perfectly suited for building integrated photovoltaics. He presented recent advancements in scaling up both opaque and semitransparent small-area solar cells to modules and panels with dimensions up to 0.5 square meters, in particular using deposition processes outside of the glove box in conventional ambient air. Moreover, innovative laser patterning and lamination processes allowed him to demonstrate stable operation of the modules over 1000 h, opening the way to their industrialization by the start up Solertix.

• The final talk by Dr. Florian Hilt, provided a detailed status of the STaFF project, putting IPVF team on the starting blocks for the pilot line.

Last but not least, the afternoon was devoted to animated discussions around a poster session providing a broad view on the research activities at IPVF related to (COMPASS program), the (IMPACTS), low cost technologies for III-V materials (COSY), the detailed characterization and modelling of perovskite materials and devices performances as well as their stability (CHARMING) and new concepts (PEARL).

During a month rich in announcements on the perovskite field (SNEC, Intersolar, IEEE); the IPVF scientific day provided a strong basis with a critical analysis on this emerging technology. A big THANKS to all of you who made of June 20 a memorable day.