Continuing research collab­or­ation between SERIS and FHR in the field of advanced TCO and contact coatings

On May 28th, 2018 the Solar Energy Research Insti­tute of Singa­pore (SERIS) and FHR Anla­gen­bau GmbH, Ger­many jointly announced to con­tinue the close col­lab­or­a­tion on the devel­op­ment of new Trans­par­ent Con­duct­ive Oxide (TCO) and metal con­tact coat­ings that have broad applic­a­tions in the solar industry. To meet indus­trial require­ments new con­tact con­cepts has to be imple­men­ted in the pro­duc­tion tech­no­lo­gies of thin film and sil­icon based solar pan­els. At SERIS, sev­eral years of exper­i­ence have been built up in thin-film tech­no­lo­gies, and a group of research­ers is work­ing on the devel­op­ment of next-gen­er­a­tion high-per­form­ance solar cells. In TCO devel­op­ment the use of toxic, scarce and expens­ive mater­i­als needs to be reduced or com­pletely elim­in­ated, without com­prom­ising the func­tional prop­er­ties. TCOs and metal con­tacts are widely used in thin-film solar cell tech­no­lo­gies such as CdTe, CIGS and amorph­ous sil­icon, they are also used in advanced high-per­form­ance sil­icon wafer solar cell tech­no­lo­gies such as het­ero­junc­tion solar cells. Both SERIS and FHR have agreed to share their exper­i­ence and ex­per­tise, and to join hands in a col­lab­or­at­ive pro­ject aim­ing at lower­ing the cost of solar energy.

"At SERIS we are con­tinu­ously work­ing to drive down the cost of solar energy.” said Pro­fessor Armin ABERLE, CEO of the Solar Energy Research Insti­tute of Singa­pore. “We explore advanced solar cell con­cepts and strive to imple­ment them in a high-volume, low-cost pro­cess. We are happy to con­tinue the long-term rela­tion­ship with FHR in this field."

Tor­sten Wink­ler, CEO of FHR Anla­gen­bau GmbH added that “It´s per­fect to bring both our long term exper­i­ence together to mas­ter the cost reduc­tion require­ments for advanced solar cell and panel. SERIS is for us the ideal Asian-based part­ner work­ing with their industry part­ners for the most advanced tech­no­lo­gies. By cooper­at­ing with SERIS we con­tinue a stra­tegic part­ner­ship with the aim of enhan­cing our lead­ing know-how in vacuum pro­cess tech­no­lo­gies on a high level and to offer state-of-the-art vacuum coat­ing solu­tions to our cus­tom­ers."

SERIS has acquired a state-of-the-art and highly ver­sat­ile in-line mag­net­ron sput­ter­ing plat­form from FHR, which provides excel­lent pro­cess con­trol and which is cap­able of depos­it­ing a vari­ety of advanced TCO mater­i­als onto sub­strates with a size of up to 300 mm x 400 mm. This plat­form will allow SERIS to become a lead­ing R&D centre in thin-film and het­ero­junc­tion solar cell research, push­ing these tech­no­lo­gies to a com­pet­it­ive pos­i­tion in the renew­able energy land­scape.

The Solar Energy Research Insti­tute of Singa­pore (SERIS) at the National Uni­versity of Singa­pore (NUS) is Singa­pore’s national insti­tute for applied solar energy research. SERIS is sup­por­ted by the National Uni­versity of Singa­pore (NUS), National Research Found­a­tion (NRF) and the Singa­pore Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Board (EDB). SERIS con­ducts research, devel­op­ment, test­ing and con­sult­ing on solar energy tech­no­lo­gies and their integ­ra­tion into power sys­tems and build­ings. The insti­tute’s R&D spec­trum cov­ers mater­i­als, com­pon­ents, pro­cesses, sys­tems and ser­vices, with an emphasis on solar photo­vol­taic cells, mod­ules and sys­tems. SERIS is glob­ally act­ive but focuses on tech­no­lo­gies and ser­vices for trop­ical regions, in par­tic­u­lar for Singa­pore and South-East Asia. SERIS col­lab­or­ates closely with uni­versit­ies, research organ­isa­tions, gov­ern­ment agen­cies and industry, both loc­ally and glob­ally.

For more inform­a­tion on SERIS, please visit www.seris.sg

For media enquir­ies, kindly con­tact:

SERIS
Tan Mui Koon
Sci­entific Man­ager, Cor­por­ate Rela­tions
Phone: +65 66011356
Email: muikoon.tan@nus.edu.sg