Long & Medium Term Research: Simplified Fabrication Methods for Silicon Concentrator Solar Cells. This award recommendation is made under the Program for Long & Medium-Term Research at Foreign Centers of Excellence. The program seeks to enable U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct long-term research abroad at research institutions of proven excellence. Awards provide opportunities for the conduct of joint research, and the use of unique or compli- mentary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions in foreign countries. This award for a proposal sponsored by Dr. Richard M. Swanson will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Richard R. King of Indiana University with Professors Martin A. Green and Stuart Wenham of the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia. The researchers plan to focus on the area of silicon concentrator solar cells, primarily of the type contacted on both sides, and designed for concentration ratios between 20 and 100. Because this concentration range is relatively low, and the required cell area for a given power output is correspondingly high, this research will emphasize simplified fabrication procedures in order to reduce the cost per unit cell area as much as possible. For instance, they will explore the use of electrochemically deposited metallization as an alternative to vacuum deposition of metal, and investigate designs which do not require alignment of one photolithographic level to another, and cells which are fabricated by printing patterns directly on the cell, thus eliminating the need for photosensitive resists. The goal of this research is to find the ways in which such high-throughput processes can be used while maintaining the cell efficiency at a level greater than about 90% of the value obtained when complex, microelectronics fabrication techniques are used. The researchers also will fabricate cells designed for concentration ratios of about 5. Since the cost of the silicon substrate becomes a very significant fraction of the total system cost in this concentration ratio, the use of monocrystalline, thin-film silicon for this type of cell will be explored. The award recommendation provides funds to cover, as appropriate, international travel, local travel abroad, stipend, dependents' allowance if applicable, and a flat administrative allowance of $250 for the U.S. home institution.
