NSF Award
2014818
The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to increase the adoption of solar power by reducing the life-cycle cost of solar energy. The proposed work is to use a novel approach to improving the efficiency of any solar module with an additive manufacturing process. The technology tunes sunlight to improve its absorption and maximize its conversion into electric power. <br/><br/>The proposed SBIR Phase I project will advance the development of a high-precision additive manufacturing process to create uniform optical layers for solar cells. A layer of nano-optical coating is created on either a plate-glass or polycarbonate substrate. The proposed coating restricts the wavelength distribution of incident photons to match the bandgap of mono- and polycrystalline silicon solar cells. The coating enhances coherence by embedding a nano-particle layer creating localized surface plasmon resonance on the crystalline silicon solar cell surface. Photons are scattered back to the solar cell with a one-dimensional distributed Bragg reflector.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
