Department of Electrical Engineering

1
Department of Electrical Engineering
Acknowledgements Dr. Chris Ferekides (Faculty
Advisor) Ms. Deidra Hodges (Graduate Mentor)
Introduction
Varying Factors
Results
In the last century, humans have consumed nearly
half of all the oil that will ever be produced.
There is a rising fossil fuel consumption
(releases carbon emissions) which results in
violent weather. There are over 5 billion tons
of carbon emissions in our atmosphere today. A
solar cell is a photovoltaic device that produces
electricity directly from sunlight. The use of
solar cells reduces the emissions, other
pollutants, and long term health care just to
name a few. Creating a successful solar cell on a
flexible substrate will allow the government and
other companies to use solar energy in/on devices
with various shapes, also to produce and use
solar energy at a lower cost then on the now used
glass substrate.
Many factors must be taken into consideration
due to the property changes that occur at the
nano- scale level. Also, the chemical properties
of the 316 type Al reacts differently with the
chemicals, which means we can not use the Si
solar cell methods.
We have results that focus on the voltage and
current across the solar cell after completion of
the ITO deposition, but none that produce these
kinds of results which will not only inform us
that we have a solar cell it will be efficient
also.

• Adhesion
• Stress

• Temperature
• Thickness
• Pressure
• Current
• Voltage
• Deposition rate

My Research Focus
Current work
Currently, solar cells are being worked on all
over the country to increase the efficiency of
solar cells on silicon (glass and flexible
substrates). This research can be divided into
three areas making current technology solar
cells cheaper and/or more efficient to
effectively compete with other energy sources
developing new technologies based on new solar
cell architectural designs and developing new
materials to serve as light absorbers and charge
carriers.
SEM image of a Solar Cell
My research focus was on the adhesion of the
chemicals to the substrate and the stress in
which the substrate may incur during the various
deposition processes. We sent one complete set
of samples to the nano-indentation machine for
analysis
Methodology
Sunlight
Creates the P-N junction diode
Flatness in graph shows slight adhesion problems
Nano-indentation results
Creates an Ohmic layer
A Cover glass B Antireflective coating C
Contact grid D N- Type E P- Type F Back
Contact
Equivalent circuit of a solar cell
Future Work
Used as a Adhesion to seal diode/cell to
substrate
The current efficiency is typically around 17.

• Review scratch testing results to inform us on
  the cells ability to withstand abrasion (adhesion
  factor)
• Calculate Stress and Adhesion values
• Calculate texture coefficient

• Create various cells with different temperatures,
  thicknesses and pressures
• Improve on efficiency
• Verify various levels through TEM SEM images

Objective
To create a stable solar cell on a metallic
flexible substrate.
REU Student Tanisha C. Jenkins