Titanium Dioxide Thin Film, also known as “Titanium Dioxide Thin Film Photovoltaics” (Titanium Dioxide Thin Film PV), is a new revolutionary solar cell technology for high efficiency solar conversion.
Titled: How Thin Film ISF Technology Works
What is Thin Film ISF Technology?
Thin Film ISF technology creates a uniform film of metal on the surface of the wafer. A variety of metals can be used, but the most popular are titanium, chromium and aluminum. Thin-film deposition provides a number of benefits over traditional thick-film techniques; it is:
Achievement oriented: Thin film deposition is designed to produce repeatable results, which is ideal for production environments and manufacturing applications.
Tolerant of defects: Because thin film is deposited directly onto a substrate, it does not require expensive post-deposition processing steps such as etching or masking. This results in greater yield from each substrate.
Vapor phase processing: This means that the deposition process occurs at low temperatures (typically less than 100 degrees Celsius) and uses low pressure (typically less than 1 Torr). This allows for more intricate and varied patterns to be produced.
Thin Film ISF technology works via a proprietary deposition process to deposit nanometer-thick layers of amorphous silicon. Thin Film’s amorphous silicon material is deposited over the backside of a glass substrate, with no underlayer of silicon dioxide required. This structure can then be used in tandem with standard CMOS fabrication processes to build high-performance solar cells without the need for a costly and complex epitaxial growth step.
Tuning the optical properties of this material, which is manufactured using standard semiconductor processing techniques, allows Thin Film to customize the solar cell’s spectral response as needed for each customer application. The company notes that this flexibility gives it an advantage over competing technologies, such as quantum dots or other forms of nanocrystalline silicon, which are not able to modify the spectral response of their materials.
THIN FILM ISF TECHNOLOGY is the next generation of solar technology. The ISF process allows the deposition of up to 30 microns (1/500th of an inch) of high-grade silicon cells onto a variety of materials.
Truesun’s proprietary thin-film deposition technology allows for flexibility in film applications and a reduction in manufacturing costs as well as material needs by up to 50%. Due to its flexibility, ISF cells can be applied to roof tops, window glass, polymers and even LED lights. This revolutionary technology provides applications in the building integration market, security lighting, glazing, signs and displays.
Truesun’s ISF Technology is revolutionizing the solar industry by offering efficiencies that are higher than traditional silicon solar cell technologies at lower cost which will ultimately enable lower costs of energy for consumers through higher adoption rates.
Thin films are applied to a substrate by means of a vapor deposition process. The thin film material is heated until it becomes a vapor and is then deposited onto the substrate. The vapor is then cooled down on the substrate and condensed back into a solid.
The following video shows a thin film deposition process. The thin film itself is made up of small particles that come from the precursor compound. This video shows the precursor compound as it is heated until it becomes a vapor and is then deposited onto the substrate.
BASF has developed the technology to deposit thin films of copper indium selenide (CIS) solar cell materials on glass. A thin film is an atomically thin layer of a material that can be deposited on a surface by gas-phase deposition or vacuum evaporation, resulting in a low-cost, flexible, transparent and mechanically strong solar cell. Thin films have the potential to make renewable energy cost-competitive with fossil fuels.
Seeking to keep ahead of rivals, Germany’s BASF SE is betting on “thin film” solar panels as it races against Asian manufacturers to bring cheaper forms of renewable energy to market.
“Thin films are the future,” said Adam Bartczak, who heads BASF’s photovoltaic business. “We’ve seen that there is a huge market for them. We want to be there first.”
The world’s biggest chemical maker plans by 2016 to start producing CIS, or copper indium selenide, solar cells at its new factory in Arnstadt in central Germany. Most photovoltaic panels now use crystalline silicon cells made from a costly and energy-intensive process by which purified silicon is melted and then sliced into wafers that are turned into solar cells.
In addition to the vacuum chamber, a sputtering machine contains a substrate holder to hold the wafer in place, and a power supply to provide power for the cathode. The sputtering gas is delivered through tubes from gas sources and is heated by electric heaters. The actual sputtering is controlled by an operator using a set of knobs, buttons and switches on the front panel.
The process of depositing a thin film of material onto a substrate is called “sputtering”. Electrons are accelerated towards the target material and collide with it at high speed, knocking atoms from their surface. These atoms are then deposited onto the surface of the wafer in an ultra-thin layer.
Sputtering is used because it allows the deposition of materials that would be impossible to deposit using other processes such as evaporation or chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Thin films can be made with thicknesses ranging from less than one nanometer (nm) to several micrometers.
Tungsten silicide is used as an interconnect material in semiconductor devices. It has properties that make it ideal for this application: it has good electrical conductivity, low resistivity, and good adhesion to silicon dioxide and silicon nitride layers. However, depositing t