Printed Solar Cells - Print Solar Cells with Ink-Jet Printer

Electronics engineers,
You know what’s PCB, right? It’s Printed Circuit Board that we always handle.

Now, there’s Printed Solar Cells.

This is a very interesting innovation. It’s a new type of Solar Cell Panel. It shouldn’t be called panel as it’s as thin as paper, and made from flexible plastics. When I mention flexible, it means it can be curve-folded, just like the photographic film.

The breakthrough of this solar energy transducer technology is its fabrication process. It’s not the same as earlier solar cells where it used to be processed through silicon fabrication. This time round, what’s needed is just a conventional ink-jet printer.

A thin flexible plastic, which is also a substrate by itself, is used as a printing medium. The ink-jet printer is loaded with a type of ink, which is the solar material. The solar material is then printed onto the plastic film, to form a Printed Solar Cell. The output of this printing process is a thin flexible solar film, which can be rolled. Also, it can be coated with adhesive to have the Printed Solar Cells stick to any surface.


This technology has been announced by Konarka Technoligies Inc. They call it Power Plastic®. It has planned to apply to windows and clothing.

It’s also said to be cheaper than the conventional solar panels.

Reference:
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9891134-54.html?tag=blog.promos
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/03/10/printable-solar-cells-demonstrated/
http://www.konarka.com/news_and_events/press_releases/2008/3_march/0304_ink.php
http://www.acfnewsource.org/science/solar_film.html
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/11/72058