SOLAR FLAIR 09

Technology Challenges
for Organic
Photovoltaics

19th November 2009

Steve Spruce
R&D Manager

Copyright CPI 2008. All rights reserved

 Contents

• Organic Photovoltaics
– What are they
– Technical Issues faced
• Market example
• Barriers for PV systems
• Facility and Capability to make and measure
barriers
• Key next steps

© & Confidential to The Centre for Process Innovation Ltd

 What are Organic Photovoltaics?
• Electronic devices based on the use of organic semi-
conductors, typically printed onto polymeric
substrates

• Comprise of layers printed and/or coated, between

10 - 1000nm in thickness
– Electrical connectivity
– Photoactive effect
– Barrier layers to water and oxygen permeation
– Physical/optical performance

• Hi-volume, lower cost, lightweight, flexible/conformal

Photovoltaic Arrays
 Photovoltaic Cells: Key Issues

• Efficiency of electrical COST

production: The ability to
turn sunlight into energy
• Cost of manufacture: How
much per m2
• Lifetime: Efficiency over
time Vs replacement costs

EFFICIENCY LIFETIME
 Photo Voltaic Cells: Efficiency Vs Cost

Type Efficiency
Mono-crystalline silicon +15 -18%
Inorganic

Poly-crystalline silicon 13-15%

COST
Amorphous silicon 6-8%

CIGS/ CdTe 8-10%

Organic

OPV 3-8%
DSSC 3-8%
Photo Voltaic Cells: Lifetime

• Inorganic systems generally stable with lifetimes +10-

25 years
• Organic systems less stable limited lifetime without
protection from UV, moisture and aerial oxidation
– Requires a top layer material to:
• Maximise light transmission
• Reduce the effect of UV damage to the device
• Minimise the impact of scratches and impact on light
transmission
• Act as a barrier to minimise the amount of water and oxygen
reaching the active parts of the cell
Market Example: Corus
Commercial & Industrial Buildings
Large available roof areas
 Corus Photovoltaic Development
Vision

ƒ Corus supplies > 100m m2 roof and wall

cladding
ƒ In our target market, large buildings approach
100,000m2 in area
ƒ Most of that roof area is ‘redundant’ but has a
peak energy generation potential of 5MW
ƒ The Colors vision is to functionalise the
whole roof surface

This Vision is shared by Clients:

“Create a building which is a Power

Plant: We will optimise the building and
site to produce and export energy
…cut CO2 emissions…using renewable
resources such as solar photovoltaics
and wind turbines.”
www.gazeley.com
Generic DSC product on metal
A combination of functional layers

Light (photons)

compare with existing

Diffusion barrier on polymer film
Colorcoat product design
Counter electrode on polymer film

Electrolyte

PV absorber layer

Back contact layer – conducting layer

Insulating layer / diffusion barrier

STEEL
Metal
 Continuous steel processing
Volume manufacture

Hot Rolling Cold Rolling Galvanising Coil Coating Processing

1000 m/min 1000 m/min 200 m/min 150 m/min 20 m/min

• A large coil coating line produces 40 million m2 of coated metal per year

• Process technology is well developed c. 50 years of Corus experience

• Low capital expenditure – relatively simple process steps

• Theoretical production: 1m wide, 10m/min = 4 million m2 = 200MW annually

PV Accelerator Facility
Dedicated location for joint Corus-Dyesol project team
Key Challenges
To a commercially feasible offering

1. producing effective and robust insulating and

back contact layers continuously

2. developing extremely high performance

barrier films at realistic costs

3. increasing speed and consistency

of DSC process steps

4. generating robust product with high levels

of integrity
Barriers for Flexible Photovoltaics
Barriers for Flexible Photovoltaics

• Why are they needed?

• How is it achieved
• What level is required?
• What does this mean?
• How is it measured?
• Where are we in delivering this?
Why are they needed ? Technology

• Conventional PV cells are based on

• Silicon / Inorganic Semi-Conductors
– Robust, relatively insensitive to moisture

• Glass screens
– Rigid

– Transparent

– Are Impervious to moisture

Why are they needed ? Technology

• Organic PV cells aim to be based on

• Organic Semi-Conductors and reactive backplanes
– Highly sensitive to moisture

• Polymer screens
– Flexible

– Transparent

– Must be Impervious to moisture

What level of barrier is required?

• Water Vapour Transmission Rate (WVTR) is quoted in grams of

water passing through each square meter of a material per day
i.e. g H2O/m2/day

• Based on calculated water transmission rates and the damage

that could be caused over the lifetime of the products, OLED
manufacturers are looking for a level of 1 x 10-6 g H2O/m2/day

• OPV developers believe a level of 1 x 10-5 g H2O/m2/day will be

required

• Other PV systems believe levels of 1 x 10-3 to 1 x 10-4 g

H2O/m2/day may be acceptable
 What does this mean ?

~100m

~50m
• Imagine a polymer sheet the size of a football pitch: How much
water would pass through this over a MONTH at various barrier
performance levels?
 What does this mean ?
OLED
Raw Film Food Packaging Photovoltaics Displays
& Lighting

100 10 1 1 X 1O-2 1 X 1O-4 1 X 1O-6

What does this mean ?

• Equated to the real life application

• The barrier for a 2m2 Organic PV Cell, with a required
barrier level of 1 x 10-5g/m2/day can pass NO MORE
THAN of 150 mg of water over a typical 20-year
lifetime
– Difficult to achieve but entirely possible
– Extremely difficult to measure and, currently not
standardised
Producing Barriers for Organic PVs
 How is barrier currently achieved?

• Deposition of thin (20 -

50nm) layers of inorganic
materials combined with
some organic polymeric
thin layers
– Blocks porosity in polymer
thin films
– Dis-locates pores providing
tortuous path
Barix Multilayers: a Water and Oxygen Barrier
for Flexible Organic Electronics
– Visser RJ: Vitex Systems. Nanoforum
 Facility and Capability: Overview

• Joint Investment with DuPont Teijin Films: part

funded by ONE the local RDA
• R2R sputter coater based in a cleanroom facility

– Commissioned November 2005

– 4 full time staff

• Combination of development work, customer projects

and pilot scale pre-production trials

© & Confidential to The Centre for Process Innovation Ltd

 Sputter Coating: The process
Substrate

Coating forms on
substrate

Target material atom Plasma

ejected towards the
substrate
Magnetic field

Argon (Ar+) ion - - -

- - Sputter target
accelerated towards
the target material - - -
-

S N S
Magnetron
magnet
assembly

Cathode assembly
(cooled)

© & Confidential to The Centre for Process Innovation Ltd

 Flexible Substrates Facility
Class 1,000 Area: Front Access
• Film Handling
• Maximum 400mm web
• 12 - 250 micron
• 500 – 6000m capacity (depends on
thickness)
• Film speed from 0.1 to 20m/min

Flexibility
• Films include PET, PE, PI, non-wovens
• Coated from 356mm down to 200mm
• Full Software control and Monitoring
• On-line & At-line measurement

© & Confidential to The Centre for Process Innovation Ltd

 Flexible Substrates Facility
Coater Front View
On-wind
Off-wind
In-line optical and
electrical resistance
monitoring
Plasma Treatment

•Medium Frequency AC •Planar 10kw pulsed

dual rotatable magnetron power DC magnetron
•600mm length •600 x 150mm target area
•6-12mm target wall
thickness

© & Confidential to The Centre for Process Innovation Ltd

 Flexible Substrates Facility
Class 10,000 area: Rear Access
• Rapid target replacement
• Magnetron adjustment
• Easy maintenance
• Major coating changes

Extensive Target Library

•Au, Ti, Ni, Cu, Ag, Sn
•Al, Zn, Zr, Mo
•Si, Hf, Nb, Wf, Ta
•SiOx, TiOx, ITO

© & Confidential to The Centre for Process Innovation Ltd

How is Barrier measured?

• Direct measurement of water passing through a film

– Standard equipment designed for packaging material using
sensitive cells to measure most limited to 1 x 10-3 g
H2O/m2/day
• latest machines extend range to 5 x 10-4 g H2O/m2/day
(Mocon)
– Scientific equipment to measure radioactive labelled water
(limited use)
• Indirect measurement of water passing through the
film
– Reaction with Ca metal and back-calculate the amount of
water: sensitive from 1 x 10-3 to 1 x 10-6/7 g H2O/m2/day
How is Barrier measured?

• CPI is an Expert user of MoconTM measurement

technique
– Reproducible measurement of levels up to 5 x10-4g/m2/day
@38oC

• Expert Practitioner of the Ca test technique

– Valuable qualitative data on the degradation pathway for
water vapour transmission
• Pinholes
• Solubility
• Scratches
• Defects
– Developing quantitative data on WVTR to levels up to and
beyond 1 x10-6g/m2/day
How is Barrier measured? Mocon Test
Outer Chambers
How is Barrier measured? Mocon Test
Outer Chamber Inner Chamber

Carrier gas Flow in

dry N2 @ 38oC,

Coulometric Test gas N2 @

38oC, 90% RH
water sensor

Carrier gas N2 Flow out

plus permeate

Test film
‘O’ Ring 50mm dia.
 How is Barrier measured? Calcium Test
Calcium (100nm)
Glass slide (1mm)
Epoxy seal (60 μm)
Barrier (~100nm)
Flexible substrate
28mm 28mm (e.g. 125 μm)
100mm
 How is Barrier measured? Calcium Test
Class 100 Nitrogen Purged Glove Box Calcium Deposition Unit

Calcium Buttons on
100mm glass slide
 How is Barrier measured? Calcium Test

Environmental Control Chamber

60oC @ 90% RH Zeiss Stereo Microscope 10 –100x
How is Barrier measured? Calcium Test
Aluminium Oxide ~50nm
PET Film 175 micron

28mm

0 Hours
How is Barrier measured? Calcium Test
Aluminium Oxide ~50nm
PET Film 175 micron

20 Hours
How is Barrier measured? Calcium Test
Aluminium Oxide ~50nm
PET Film 175 micron

46 Hours
How is Barrier measured? Calcium Test
Aluminium Oxide ~50nm
PET Film 175 micron

69 Hours
How is Barrier measured? Calcium Test
Aluminium Oxide ~50nm
PET Film 175 micron

139 Hours
Where are we in delivering this?
• Claims around for films at 10-5 and 10-6 g/m2/day but
– Multi-layer stacks 4-12 layers thick
– Based on batch-type lab trials
– No commercial samples available
– Costs too high for practical application

• What have CPI achieved

– Single layer inorganic coating (30nm) on base film substrate (125um) is
giving 1x 10-1 to 1 x10-2g/m2/day
– Single layer inorganic coating (30nm) on Hard-coated base film
substrate (125um) is giving 1 x10-2 to1 x10-3g/m2/day
– Work started on +2-layer systems targeting better than 1 x10-4g/m2/day
What’s next?
• Continued Development of Barrier Capability
– Combination of existing sputter coating expertise with wet
coating capability
• In-house
• External sourced
– Investigation of novel coating systems within PETEC
portfolio
• Atomic Layer Deposition
• Remote plasma deposition

• Work with Corus to help develop robust, cost

effective products
What’s next?

• Push to establish traceable standards

– Process to measure barriers of better than 1 x 10-4 g/m2/day
– Test samples for calibration
• Support NPL
– Canvass industry for clarification of need
– Lobby government to fund the necessary work

• CPI to lead ring test protocols

– Measure WVTR at several Centres of Excellence
– Share both the quantitative and qualitative data
– Analyse findings to inform industry and standards agencies

• Develop CPI protocols on Mocon and Ca tests to improve

accuracy.
Thanks for your Attention

For further information contact

Steve Spruce at
steve.spruce@uk-cpi.com

Or visit PETEC’s website at

www.uk-PETEC.com

This work is supported by: