MaCISte, Mature CIS-based solar cells technology

The "MaCISte" project aims to the solution of specific issues that hinders the industrial scale up of a radically new process for the deposition of thin-film solar cells based on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS), by means of the Pulsed Electron Deposition (PED) technique. This technique, developed at the IMEM-CNR, allows the realization of solar cells with efficiencies > 15% on a laboratory scale. The industrial transfer requires substantial changes of the deposition process and in particular on the PED sources, to increase the deposition rate and to make the process more easily controllable and compatible with the deposition on flexible substrates, which represent a tremendous opportunity for "building integrated photovoltaics" (BIPV). The ultimate goal is the fabrication of a PED system prototype, to deposit CIGS films on a flexible substrates with characteristics compatible with the requirements of the companies supporting the project (PV efficiency >14% and increased and controlled deposition rate).