Higher Throughput, Lower Cost Processing of Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells by Photonic Curing

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The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) will work closely with NovaCentrix, an Austin,TX based company which pioneered the process of photonic curing and has already integrated it in roll-to-roll manufacturing of printed electronics. In this photonic curing approach, short pulses (= 30 ms) of broadband (200 - 1500 nm) light quickly raise the temperature of a film high enough to initiate phase transformation, grain growth/coalescence, and chemical reactions, while the substrate remains below its decomposition/deformation temperature, something not possible with conventional methods. UTD will apply photonic curing to replace the lengthy thermal annealing steps in perovskite solar cell processing, reducing time and energy cost and enabling flexible substrates. The physical proximity and the complementary expertise of the two teams will facilitate developing this new tool to produce large-area flexible photovoltaic devices with high throughput.