Flexible packages provide several advantages of lightweight, ease of storage, and deployment, and possibility of using roll-to-roll coating in the manufacture. Of the flexible cells that can be used in flexible packages, organic solar cells are very vulnerable to degradation under exposure to humidity, oxygen and other atmospheric gases, and CIGS and CdTe are somewhat vulnerable. CIGS cell vulnerability to moisture and other atmospheric gases is being reduced by chemical treatment. Multiple pairs of organic/inorganic layers termed dyad's that are being developed for providing protection to considerably more vulnerable organic light emitting diodes are being tested successfully with CIGS flexible modules. Multiple layers of extremely dense coatings prepared by atomic layer deposition that are being developed for providing protection to organic light emitting diodes are also being tried with CIGS cells. It would be essential to reduce the overall cost of individual or combined schemes for achieving economic viability.

Date Published: 30 August 2010
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 7773, Reliability of Photovoltaic Cells, Modules, Components, and Systems III, 777302 (30 August 2010);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7773:
Reliability of Photovoltaic Cells, Modules, Components, and Systems III
Neelkanth G. Dhere; John H. Wohlgemuth; Kevin Lynn, Editor(s)