Descripción del proyecto
Fabricación aditiva con resolución atómica de celdas fotovoltaicas
La fabricación aditiva por deposición de capas atómicas (ALAM, por sus siglas en inglés) será pronto una realidad. Este es el objetivo del proyecto financiado con fondos europeos ALAMS, que empleará dicha técnica para crear prototipos de celdas fotovoltaicas en grandes conjuntos de microdispositivos. El concepto de ALAM combina los principios de la fabricación aditiva (impresión 3D) con la resolución atómica lograda por la técnica de recubrimiento fino por deposición de capas atómicas (ALD, por sus siglas en inglés). El prototipo consiste en un cabezal de impresión que lleva los precursores de ALD a la fase gaseosa en las proximidades de la superficie del sustrato, con un elemento microfluídico que permite obtener una resolución lateral micrométrica. El equipo del proyecto empleará el concepto de ALAM a este estudio de caso específico. Sin embargo, el concepto es válido más allá de los confines de la energía fotovoltaica, lo que posiblemente permitirá mejorar también la fabricación aditiva y los sistemas microelectromecánicos.
Objetivo
"The ALAMS project will provide the first application of ""atomic-layer additive manufacturing"" (ALAM), namely for the prototyping of solar cells in large arrays of microdevices. The ALAM concept combines the principles of additive manufacturing (3D printing) with the atomic resolution achieved by the thin coating technique atomic layer deposition (ALD). In ALD, atomic-level control is achieved by judiciously designing the surface reaction chemistry of molecular precursors at near-room temperature for it to become self-limiting. This renders experimental use of ALD very robust to a wide range of parameter variations, since the film growth occurs in a cyclic, layer-by-layer mode. This advantage will be exploited towards 3D printing, an area of application that ALD has never been used for until we built the first ALAM prototype in November
2019. This prototype centers around a printhead that delivers the ALD precursors to the gas phase in the vicinity of the substrate surface, with a microfluidic element delivering a lateral resolution on the order of micrometers. The motion of the printhead with respect to the substrate allows the user to ‘print’ lines and structures of arbitrarily chosen geometries, whereby each pass over a given point of the substrate adds to it exactly the amount of material corresponding to one ALD monolayer, that is, a thickness typically on the order of an atom, or 0.1 nanometer (depending on the exact ALD reaction used). After developing the ALD chemistry needed for ALAM of the materials required to generate photovoltaic stacks, the ALAMS PoC project will apply it to a case study, namely the rapid prototyping of solar cell microdevices in large arrays. The ALAM concept, however, is valid beyond the confines of photovoltaic research. Its commercial potential stems from its position at the convergence of two highly modern, fast-growing markets, namely, additive manufacturing ('3D printing') and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)."
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsgeometry
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energysolar energyphotovoltaic
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept GrantsInstitución de acogida
91054 Erlangen
Alemania