Thrust lead(s): Bowden, Goodnick, Honsberg (QESST); Brabazon, Hughes (I-Form)
Vision: Scalable copper contacts
Additive-manufactured metal seed layer for plating of copper electrodes and employ it to make reliable solar cells lower cost and higher efficiency.
Technological Obstacle: Present day solar cells require silver screen printing paste
- Silver screen printing disadvantages: adds substantially to the cost
- Sustainability issues because silver the dominant material limit in present solar cells
- Electrical and optical losses are larger than plated copper cells.
Copper contacts provide a viable path to surpass silver limit.
