Massachusetts-based Konarka Technologies demonstrated the use of inkjet technology to fabricate solar energy cells. The firm has earlier developed and commercialized Power Plastic, a material that converts light to energy.
According to Konarka, the demonstration confirms that organic solar cells can be processed with printing technologies with little or no loss compared to clean room semiconductor technologies such as spin coating.
The company added that inkjet technology is very promising for fabricating photovoltaics because it is compatible with various substrates and it does not require additional patterning.
The materials printer is reported to be a turnkey, bench-top materials deposition system that leverages Fujifilm’s Dimatix ink jet technology and its Shaped Piezo Silicon microelectromechanical fabrication processes in depositing picoliter-sized droplets of functional fluids on all types of surfaces.
