1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA [2].
1] Semprius, Durham, North Carolina 27713, USA [2].
Nat Mater. 2014 Jun;13(6):593-8. doi: 10.1038/nmat3946. Epub 2014 Apr 28.
Expenses associated with shipping, installation, land, regulatory compliance and on-going maintenance and operations of utility-scale photovoltaics can be significantly reduced by increasing the power conversion efficiency of solar modules through improved materials, device designs and strategies for light management. Single-junction cells have performance constraints defined by their Shockley-Queisser limits. Multi-junction cells can achieve higher efficiencies, but epitaxial and current matching requirements between the single junctions in the devices hinder progress. Mechanical stacking of independent multi-junction cells circumvents these disadvantages. Here we present a fabrication approach for the realization of mechanically assembled multi-junction cells using materials and techniques compatible with large-scale manufacturing. The strategy involves printing-based stacking of microscale solar cells, sol-gel processes for interlayers with advanced optical, electrical and thermal properties, together with unusual packaging techniques, electrical matching networks, and compact ultrahigh-concentration optics. We demonstrate quadruple-junction, four-terminal solar cells with measured efficiencies of 43.9% at concentrations exceeding 1,000 suns, and modules with efficiencies of 36.5%.
通过改进材料、器件设计和光管理策略来提高太阳能电池组件的功率转换效率，可以显著降低太阳能电池的运输、安装、土地、法规遵从性以及持续维护和运营成本。单结电池的性能受到其肖克利-奎塞尔极限的限制。多结电池可以实现更高的效率，但器件中单结之间的外延和电流匹配要求阻碍了其发展。独立多结电池的机械堆叠可以规避这些缺点。在这里，我们提出了一种使用与大规模制造兼容的材料和技术实现机械组装多结电池的制造方法。该策略涉及基于印刷的微尺度太阳能电池堆叠、具有先进光学、电学和热性能的溶胶-凝胶层以及不常见的封装技术、电匹配网络和紧凑的超高浓度光学器件。我们展示了四结、四端太阳能电池，在超过 1000 倍太阳的浓度下测量到 43.9%的效率，以及模块效率为 36.5%。
