Microfabrication of organic electronic devices: organic photovoltaic module with high total-area efficiency

Transferring organic photovoltaics (OPV) from the laboratory into economically feasible products, requires the fabrication of modules, a series of connected single cells. During this transition, there is typically a drastic decrease in power conversion efficiency (PCE). This thesis reports on the design, fabrication, and characterization of state-of-the-art, high-performance organic photovoltaic modules with a novel geometry that composed of unit cells with alternating electrical polarities. Such configuration is realized by exclusive patterning of the interlayers and electrodes and avoids patterning of the photoactive layer. With this novel architecture, area losses of photovoltaic module can be significantly reduced compared with the conventional configurations. The processing of this new solar cell module is also compatible with large area processing techniques such as slot-die coating. This thesis reports on 4-cell and 8-cell modules, wherein the measured fill-factors (FF) and PCE of the constituent sub-cells and of the modules are almost identical. The 4-cell module, with a total area of 0.8 cm2, exhibits an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 3.15 V, a short circuit-current density (JSC) of 2.3 mA/cm2 and a FF of 0.69, yielding a PCE of 5.01%. The 8-cell module, with a total area of 1.6 cm2, exhibits a VOC of 6.39 V, a JSC of 1.2 mA/cm2 and a FF of 0.63, yielding a PCE of 5.06%. Similar PCE values between 4-cell and 8-cell module is a demonstration of scalability of this novel geometry without compromising the efficiency.Ph.D