Performance of transparent conductors on flexible glass and plastic substrates for thin film photovoltaics

Abstract

High-performance transparent conductive indium-tin-oxide (ITO) films on flexible glass have been flextested to 25-50k bend cycles without breakage, and with ~0.1% change in sheet resistance. In contrast, commercial ITO/PET samples undergo ~50-100% increase in sheet resistance in the same test, indicating that such coatings/substrates may not be acceptable for use in some products or fabrication procedures. The flexible glass substrate enables high-temperature processing, which facilitates the high performance of the coatings. Measurements of the volume resistivity and water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) indicate that Corning ® Willow ® Glass is suitable as a PV substrate material without need for barrier coatings or glass lamination.

Advances in Flexible Memristors with Hybrid Perovskites

“…27 °C with humidity of 85%). 28 Other properties such as high thermal tolerance (∼600 °C), low cost, and high barrier for oxygen and moisture penetration are appreciable for this material. 29 Recently, paper substrates have been reported as a flexible platform for optoelectronic devices.…”

Recent Progress of Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Another drawback for the ITO‐PET and ITO‐PEN substrates is the high water‐vapor‐transmission‐rate (WVTR), which easily leads to serious instability problems due to the unstable property of perovskite absorber upon moisture . For example, the WVTR of PET with a thickness of 100 µm is as high as 1.1 g · m −2 · day −1 at 45 °C …”

“…Another drawback for the ITO-PET and ITO-PEN substrates is the high water-vapor-transmission-rate (WVTR), which easily leads to serious instability problems due to the unstable property of perovskite absorber upon moisture. [32] For example, the WVTR of PETwith a thickness of 100 mm is as high as 1.1 g Á m À2 Á day À1 at 45 C. [33] To solve these problems, other plastic materials were selected as the transparent substrates. For example, Bae et al employed a glass fabric-reinforced plastic film as the substrate, on which the crystalline-ITO film and Ag (or Cu) NWs composite derived at relative high temperature (250 C) was used as the transparent electrode.…”

“…The ultrathin flexible glass, which is also known as willow glass, is a promising alternative for the plastic substrate in FPSCs due to its excellent transparency, good mechanical stability, high temperature tolerance (up to 700 C), low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and excellent water barrier (WVTR of willow glass with thickness of 100 mm is less than 7 Â 10 À6 g Á m À2 Á day À1 at 45 C with humidity of 85%). [33] Fan et al fabricated the FPSCs on willow glasses and demonstrated a PCE of 13.14% with the help of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) antireflection nanostructure film on the front surface of the device. [39] Later, Hest et al improved the record efficiency of willow glass-based FPSCs to 18.1% by optimizing the ETLs and perovskite films.…”

Manufacturing Technology (MATES) II. Task Order 0006: Air Force Technology and Industrial Base Research Sub-Task 07: Future Advances in Electronic Materials and Processes-Flexible Hybrid Electronics

“…[350] A year later, researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado described their use of flexible glass as a substrate for thin film photovoltaics. [351] Additionally, in 2014, the University of Cincinnati and AFRL worked together to create pentacene organic thin-film transistors on flexible glass substrates. [352] Overall, it appears that since the release of Corning's Willow® Glass, there has been an explosion of research regarding flexible glass substrates for FHE applications.…”