High-resolution deposition of conductive and insulating materials at micrometer scale on complex substrates.

Additive manufacturing transforms the landscape of modern microelectronics. Recent years have witnessed significant progress in the fabrication of 2D planar structures and free-standing 3D architectures. In this work, we present a much-needed intermediary approach: we introduce the Ultra-Precise Deposition (UPD) technology, a versatile platform for material deposition at micrometer scale on complex substrates. The versality of this approach is related to three aspects: material to be deposited (conductive or insulating), shape of the printed structures (lines, dots, arbitrary shapes), as well as type and shape of the substrate (rigid, flexible, hydrophilic, hydrophobic, substrates with pre-existing features). The process is based on the direct, maskless deposition of high-viscosity materials using narrow printing nozzles with the internal diameter in the range from 0.5 to 10 µm. For conductive structures we developed highly concentrated non-Newtonian pastes based on silver, copper, or gold nanoparticles. In this case, the feature size of the printed structures is in the range from 1 to 10 µm and their electrical conductivity is up to 40% of the bulk value, which is the record conductivity for metallic structures printed with spatial resolution below 10 µm. This result is the effect of the synergy between the printing process itself, formulation of the paste, and the proper sintering of the printed structures. We demonstrate a pathway to print such fine structures on complex substrates. We argue that this versatile and stable process paves the way for a widespread use of additive manufacturing for microfabrication.

Dual gratings for enhanced light trapping in thin-film solar cells by a layer-transfer technique.

Thin film solar cells benefit significantly from the enhanced light trapping offered by photonic nanostructures. The thin film is typically patterned on one side only due to technological constraints. The ability to independently pattern both sides of the thin film increases the degrees of freedom available to the designer, as different functions can be combined, such as the reduction of surface reflection and the excitation of quasiguided modes for enhanced light absorption. Here, we demonstrate a technique based on simple layer transfer that allows us to independently pattern both sides of the thin film leading to enhanced light trapping. We used a 400 nm thin film of amorphous hydrogenated silicon and two simple 2D gratings for this proof-of-principle demonstration. Since the technique imposes no restrictions on the design parameters, any type of structure can be made.

Light trapping in thin-film solar cells with randomly rough and hybrid textures.

We study light-trapping in thin-film silicon solar cells with rough interfaces. We consider solar cells made of different materials (c-Si and µc-Si) to investigate the role of size and nature (direct/indirect) of the energy band gap in light trapping. By means of rigorous calculations we demonstrate that the Lambertian Limit of absorption can be obtained in a structure with an optimized rough interface. We gain insight into the light trapping mechanisms by analysing the optical properties of rough interfaces in terms of Angular Intensity Distribution (AID) and haze. Finally, we show the benefits of merging ordered and disordered photonic structures for light trapping by studying a hybrid interface, which is a combination of a rough interface and a diffraction grating. This approach gives a significant absorption enhancement for a roughness with a modest size of spatial features, assuring good electrical properties of the interface. All the structures presented in this work are compatible with present-day technologies, giving recent progress in fabrication of thin monocrystalline silicon films and nanoimprint lithography.

Engineering Gaussian disorder at rough interfaces for light trapping in thin-film solar cells.

A theoretical study of randomly rough interfaces to obtain light trapping in thin-film silicon solar cells is presented. Roughness is modeled as a surface with Gaussian disorder, described using the root mean square of height and the lateral correlation length as statistical parameters. The model is shown to describe commonly used rough substrates. Rigorous calculations, with short-circuit current density as a figure of merit, lead to an optimization of disorder parameters and to a significant absorption enhancement. The understanding and optimization of disorder is believed to be of general interest for various realizations of thin-film solar cells.