Salford team hails sputtering thin film solar breakthrough

Researchers claim to have discovered a cheaper and more efficient way in which to produce solar cells

A team of researchers at Salford University claim to have identified a technique for manufacturing thin film solar cells that promises to slash costs and enhance reliability for the emerging industry.

The team, led by Professor Arthur Hill of the University’s Institute for Materials Research, has adapted a material deposition technique known as magnetron sputtering and widely used by the glass industry to create Copper Indium Diselenide (CIS) and Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) thin film solar cells.

The team has now secured an additional year's funding from the Joule Centre to continue its research on the process in partnership with North West-based manufacturer General Vacuum.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Professor Hill said that CIS and CIGS solar cells offered a potentially attractive alternative to silicon-based photovoltaic solar cells as they require less material to manufacture and tend to boast a good ability to both absorb solar power and withstand radiation.

However, adoption of thin film solar cells has been hampered in the past by the complex and costly manufacturing processes.

"It requires a very delicate process to get the right proportions of Copper, Indium, Gallium and Selenide in the cells and by the time you have built the film the percentages could have changed, impacting its ability to absorb power, " he explained. "The magnetron spluttering technique we are looking at promises to make the proportions of the different materials more reliable."

The process, which is already widely used to add thin film covers to glass, uses a vacuum process and a magnetic field to ensure that the film material is evenly applied to a base.

Hill said that currently work on applying the technique to thin film solar panels was being done at "laboratory scale", but he added that the fact the process is already widely used by glass manufacturers suggested that it could be scaled up relatively easy and at low cost.

He also speculated that the approach could prove more effective at applying thin film solar cells to a large surface area than the printing-based thin film manufacturing techniques that have been pioneered by a number of firms.