Thrust 1: Scalable Copper Contacts

Thrust lead(s): Bowden, Goodnick, Honsberg (QESST); Brabazon, Hughes (I-Form)

Vision: Scalable copper contacts
Additive-manufactured metal seed layer for plating of copper electrodes and employ it to make reliable solar cells lower cost and higher efficiency.

Technological Obstacle: Present day solar cells require silver screen printing paste

1. Silver screen printing disadvantages: adds substantially to the cost
2. Sustainability issues because silver the dominant material limit in present solar cells
3. Electrical and optical losses are larger than plated copper cells.

Copper contacts provide a viable path to surpass silver limit.