Proceedings of International Conference Asia-Pacific Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2018 (AP-HOPV18)
Publication date: 27th October 2017
Organic photovoltaics have been issue of future energy sources due to outstanding properties such as high-flexibility, light-weight, low-cost, which facilitating wearable and portable devices. Currently, power-conversion efficiency of small-area organic photovoltaic cells has exceeded 13% in the latest scientific literatures. However, the fabrication of organic photovoltaic modules via printing techniques has been the greatest challenge for their commercial manufacture. Current module architecture, which is based on a monolithic geometry consisting of serially interconnecting stripe-patterned sub-cells with finite widths, requires highly sophisticated patterning processes that significantly increase the complexity of printing production lines and cause serious reductions in module efficiency due to so-called ‘aperture loss’ in series connection regions. In this study, we demonstrate an innovative module structure that can simultaneously reduce both patterning processes and aperture loss. By using a charge recombination feature that occurs at contacts between electron/hole transport layers, we devise a series connection method that facilitates module fabrication without patterning the charge transport layers. With the successive deposition of component layers using slot-die and doctor-blade printing techniques, we achieve a high module efficiency reaching 7.5% with area of 4.15 cm2.