SBIR-STTR Award

Project Leader Stanislau Herasimenka (520) 838-9404 Principal Investigator Contact 7700 S RIVER PWY Tempe, AZ 85284-1808 NSF Award 1914216 – SBIR Phase I Award amount to date $224,807 Start / end date 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2020 NSF Program Director Steven Konsek Errata Please report errors in award information by writing to awardsearch@nsf.gov. Abstract The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to enable the emerging and rapidly growing markets of solar powered aerospace devices. The solar array is often the most expensive component of satellites, drones and airships and reducing their cost 10 times while also reducing the weight 5 times and making solar cells flexible can disrupt one of the main barriers for the growing private aerospace economy. The major target market for thin silicon solar cells is the constellations of thousands of new satellites at the lower earth orbit for providing Global Satellite Internet and IoT device communications. Global Internet can make a broader impact on the human life in three areas: (1) enable worldwide communications, (2) stimulate economic growth in developing countries by providing Internet connection, (3) establish more sustainable societies by providing access to education, ensuring the freedom of speech and providing the instruments for electronic democracy. Another major target market is drones for surveillance and remote monitoring and airships for cargo transportation. In the future, thin silicon solar cells can become the ultimate source of energy for solar powered space transportation, asteroid mining and colonization of Mars and the Moon. The proposed project will develop two innovations which can enable mass production of thin Si solar cells for aerospace applications. There are two main roadblocks for using thin Si solar cells commercially. First, is that efficiency of thin silicon cells drops by 4-6%. Second, is that 10-micron-thick Si wafers cannot be manufactured using standard Si solar cell fabrication methods. Regher Solar has developed two innovations to enable mass production of thin Si cells with >20% efficiency. The first innovation is processing of 10-micron-thick on thicker Si wafers to use them for handling. The second innovation is using silicon heterojunction technology with copper metallization, which achieves the highest efficiency when the cell is only 10 microns thick. The overall goal of this SBIR proposal is to develop lower cost, high efficiency, flexible, reliable and manufacturable solar cells based on thin Si technology for the rapidly growing market of solar powered aerospace devices. The specific goals of this Phase I project are: (1) finalize a process flow, (2) achieve >22% AM0 efficiency, >2000 W/kg specific power, >200 W/m2 power density on a 10-micron-thick wafer; (3) conduct a comprehensive reliability testing of thin Si solar cells; (4) demonstrate flexible blankets. 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.

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is in providing a novel, low-cost, scalable, and optimized-for-use-in-space solar panel technology based on ultrathin silicon solar cells. The developed space solar panels may have substantially lower cost compared to the state-of-practice space solar panels and will be compatible with automated high-volume manufacturing. The panels will meet the requirements of the growing satellite manufacturing industry. The main customers include manufacturers of satellites for large scale satellite constellations and manufacturers of large-size spacecraft, as well as space agencies and private companies developing infrastructure for space, Moon and Mars exploration. Applications on Earth could include powering long-endurance drones (airplanes and airships) and remote facilities that need more compact and lighter weight solar solutions for off-grid power systems. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop novel space-stable and scalable packaging technologies for ultrathin silicon solar cells. The project will develop a prototype solar blanket and demonstrate its integration into ultracompact solar array deployment systems. Specific objectives of this Phase II project are to: (1) establish routine production of ultrathin silicon solar cells, (2) develop low-stress metal interconnects for thin silicon solar cells, (3) develop a cover glass replacement coating for thin silicon solar cells, (4) demonstrate mini-blankets with acceptable cell-to-module efficiency loss, (5) electrically and mechanically integrate silicon solar blanket, and (6) demonstrate deployment of the relevant size blanket while conducting preliminary stress testing. 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."