Sumitomo Heavy Industries (SHI) has developed a new reactive plasma deposition (RPD) method to form Ultradunne Tinoxide-Electrone Transport layers (ETL) for perovskite solar cells. It claims that this enables mass production with a low temperature with minimal substrate damage.
Sumitomo Heavy Industries has developed a new deposition technology for ultra -thin electron transport layers, an important part of the next generation of perovskiet solar cells. The company established in Tokyo said this week in a press release that uses the cost-effective material method and a low-impact process, in which important barriers are tackled for scaling perovskiet technologies for mass production.
Perovskiet solar cells include multiple functional layers, SHI said, explaining that one layer is an electron transport layer that is deposited above or below the electricity -generating perovskiet layer.
SHI noted that the electron transport layer plays a crucial role by having electrones generated in the perovskiet layer to go to the electrode efficiently. To meet this function, the layer of guidance tires must have that these electrons can accept. It is also important that the layer is deposited without harming the perovskiet layer, which remains very sensitive to raised temperatures, explained the industrial group established in Tokyo.
“Although they are cost-effective and are suitable for mass production, conventional formation methods usually include high energy particles and environments at high temperature,” Shi said. “This will in turn make them incompatible with perovskiet materials. So manufacturers are actively investigating methods for chemical film deposition.”
Shi, however, acknowledged that this approach is still a challenge due to high material costs, the difficulty in scaling up the production and the use of flammable or toxic front -basses. It claimed that its RPD method, a type of physical vapor deposits (PVD), overcomes these challenges by making tinoxide (SNO2) films possible with insulating properties that are suitable for electrone transport layers, whereby what it claims is a world-first for PVD-based ETLs.
RPD facilitates low temperature, fast deposition with a large area with minimal substrate damage, using non-hazardous gases and reducing the environmental impact, SHI said. It claimed that the new technology also makes continuous integration of ETL deposition possible with transparent conductive film (TCF) deposition, such as IndiumTinoxide (ITO).
Shi stated that the new method also offers important improvements in mass production and cost efficiency compared to chemical deposit methods. It noted that SNO2 films can be deposited on more than 200 times The speed of current approaches, and the ETL production costs are expected to fall to less than 0.5% of the conventional process, in which usually a fullerene (C60) layer is deposited, followed by chemical vapor deposit of SNO2.
The company said that it aims to accelerate Perovskite Solar Cell acceptance by applying this methodology to mass production, in accordance with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, the Handels and Industry (Meti) plans to implement 20 GW of Perovskiet-Zonn capacity by 2040. Meti has said that it is 2040 perovskiet objective to speed up the acceptance of the next generation of solar technologies.
In January 2025, Sekisui Chemical Pilot Pilot Perovskite Solar projects launched two MUFG bank locations in Japan to demonstrate the sustainability and suitability of the technology for urban applications. A month later, a Japanese consortium by electronics supplier Macnica, thin-film PV manufacturer Reiko and Perovskite Solar Specialist Peccell Technologies started testing with lightweight testing, flexible perovskite solar modules on a pier in Yokohama.
And in April, Japanese scientists achieved a record of 26.5% efficiency in a flexible Perovskiet-Silicon Tandem Solar cell, which marked significant progress in powerful, flexible photovoltaic technology.
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