IMEC and Plextronics collaborate on high-efficiency reproducible organic solar cells

September 2, 2008--IMEC (Leuven, Belgium), Europe's leading independent nanoelectronics research institute, and Plextronics (Pittsburgh, PA), a technology company specializing in printed solar, lighting, and other organic electronics, signed an agreement to collaborate on state-of-the-art materials and inks for organic solar cells.

Just in July, it was announced that Qualcomm and IMEC were collaborating on chip design (see Qualcomm and IMEC collaborate on 3-D chip design research). And in April, IMEC announced record conversion efficiencies for organic solar cells (see IMEC achieves record 24.7% solar-cell efficiency).

With this Plextronics collaboration, IMEC aims to develop a reproducible process for high-efficiency organic solar cells using Plextronics' Plexcore-branded materials and inks, which have demonstrated world-record efficiencies as high as 5.9%, according to recent testing at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado. IMEC aims to develop organic multi-junction solar cells with efficiency of 10% by 2012. The company's focus is also on up-scaling of the process to achieve a large-area industrial manufacturing technology with an average efficiency of 7% (+/- 0.5%) and solar cell lifetime of 5 years.

"Plextronics' materials look very promising for high-efficiency reproducible organic solar cells," said Jef Poortmans, program director of solar at IMEC. "With their focus on materials, inks, and process technology for organic solar cells, we expect that our work with Plextronics will help accelerate our optimization and development of an industrial large-area process."

For more information, visit www.imec.be.