Flexible High‐Efficiency Corrugated Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells for Application in Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Payload Transportation

Abstract

In recent years, small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) have proven to be exceptionally useful. However, most of the commercially available drones are electric powered and therefore have a short endurance. Solar‐powered UAVs have recently received increased attention due to their ability to fly continuously for several days using solar energy. For this purpose, solar cells must show high efficiency, lightweight, and ultraflexibility to be fully compliant with the drone wings/body and avoid degrading their aerodynamic characteristics. Nevertheless, previous demonstrations used rigid/semi‐flexible cells. Herein, corrugated ultraflexible silicon solar cells (19% efficiency) with a smaller specific weight (645 g m−2, encapsulated) are considered and used. A theoretical comparison between the performances of the corrugated versus commercial semiflexible cells is conducted in terms of flight endurance in “AtlantikSolar” UAV. The results show that due to the ultralightweight of corrugated cells and their ability to expand at higher temperatures without bowing, an enhancement in the flight time up to 19% is achieved compared with the commercial cells which enable heavier payload (7 lbs) transportation. Finally, the corrugated cells (12.5 by 4 cm) are experimentally tested on a small‐sized drone under different conditions indoors and a 10% extended flight is reported.

Wrinkeld Polydimethylsiloxane for Enahnced Light Trapping and Anti-Reflection in Flexible Corrugated Silicon Solar Cells

“…In order to study the effect of the PDMS light trapping and anti-reflective coating on flexible solar cells, our previously demonstrated corrugation technique is used to convert rigid cells into their flexible version [6][7][8][9][10]. Commercial grade crystalline silicon solar cells with interdigitated back contacts are initially coated with a 200 µm thick PDMS layer which is next patterned using a CO2 laser.…”

Investigation of Silicon Solar Cells under Submerged Conditions with the Influence of Various Parameters: A Comparative Study

“…Furthermore, more advanced silicon materials for PV applications are available, which can be utilized to enhance these performances. [24,25]…”

Solar Powered Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Review

“…While previous demonstrations of solar‐powered drones used mostly semiflexible solar cells and were mounted on almost flat or semicurved surfaces, however, Dr. N. El‐Atab in Prof. Muhammad M. Hussain's group at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) recently used ultraflexible silicon solar cells to extend the flight time of small UAVs with unconventional surfaces. [ 104 ] Flexible solar cells were developed using a corrugation technique, which allows the transformation of SunPower solar cells into their ultraflexible versions without deteriorating their electrical performance. [ 105–108 ] The technique is based on the creation of grooves within silicon until the back contacts are exposed, while the different patterns enable different flexing capabilities in terms of flexing directionality and weight, which would be needed to cover different surfaces on the drone, as shown in Figure 7 a.…”

“…Therefore, due to the evolution of state‐of‐the‐art fabrication technologies, researchers started developing flexible and stretchable inorganic solar cells with high efficiencies. For instance, Bahabry et al and El‐Atab et al [ 104 ] worked on the development of corrugated flexible silicon solar cells with >20% efficiencies. Five different corrugated patterns (linear, diamond, honeycomb, hexagonal and octagonal) in silicon solar cells were studied to extend the flying hours of drones.…”

“…The research on maximizing the efficiency of flexible and stretchable solar cells is evolving very fast which will affect the advancement in SUAVs. [ 104,120–123 ] The stretchability and flexibility in solar cells offer to cover large amounts of curved areas in SUAVs for placement of solar cells. Moreover, the flexible solar cells are generally lighter weight than their rigid version, due to which the flight time of UAVs can increase.…”