Descrizione del progetto
Produzione additiva con risoluzione atomica per celle solari
La produzione additiva a strato atomico (ALAM, Atomic-layer additive manufacturing) diventerà realtà. Questo è l’obiettivo del progetto ALAMS, finanziato dall’UE, che prevede la prototipazione di celle solari in grandi serie di microdispositivi. Il concetto di ALAM combina i principi della produzione additiva (stampa 3D) con la risoluzione atomica ottenuta mediante la tecnica di rivestimento sottile della deposizione dello strato atomico (ALD, atomic layer deposition). Il prototipo si basa su una testina di stampa che distribuisce i precursori ALD in fase gassosa in prossimità della superficie del substrato, con un elemento microfluidico che fornisce una risoluzione laterale dell’ordine dei micrometri. Il progetto applicherà il concetto di ALAM a questo specifico caso di studio; tuttavia, esso è valido anche al di là dei confini del fotovoltaico, migliorando potenzialmente anche la produzione additiva e i sistemi microelettromeccanici.
Obiettivo
"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)."
Campo scientifico
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsgeometry
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energysolar energyphotovoltaic
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept GrantsIstituzione ospitante
91054 Erlangen
Germania