Download Voorstell

SoPPoM
SOPPOM is short for "Solution based processing of photovoltaic modules". In other
words: printing of solar cells.
Today, thin film solar cells are typically manufactured using a vacuum deposition
process, like sputtering or evaporation. This means high investment costs for production
and low yields in material use. If the vacuum processes could be replaced by solution
based processes (e.g. printing, electrochemical deposition), both the investment cost
could be reduced and the material yield significantly increased. The overall effect is a
lowering of the cost per kiloWatt for energy produced using solar cells.
The goal of this program is to set up a knowledge base in thin film photovoltaic module
production using solution based production technology for two types of materials:


Cupper Indium Gallium deSelenide/sulfide (CIGS) chemistry
organic photovoltaics (OPV)
It is a challenge to gain control of all thin film parameters for a solution based process.
Think about parameters such as: thin film chemical composition, contaminants, grain
size, grain boundaries, interfaces, defect chemistry, interactions with the substrate,
homogeneity of the thin film etcetera.
An even greater challenge is to translate the cell efficiencies, demonstrated on a small
scale, to large areas and to modules.
The SOPPOM consortium consists of a complementary team of industrial players, active
in different aspects of today’s PV industry, as can be seen in the consortium list to the
right. The consortium is coordinated by Umicore.
This industrial consortium is complemented with the most relevant research groups in
Flanders, selected for their specific field of expertise:





UGent: semiconductor nanoparticles, film processing, dispersions, PV cell
characterization
KULeuven: rapid sintering, modeling, suspension technology, PV cell
understanding
UAntwerpen: advanced nanoparticle and thin film characterization
UHasselt / IMO: transparent conductive oxide nanoparticles and film
processing, OPV polymer chemistry
IMEC: cell characterization, cell integration, layer and grain boundary
characterization
Currently there are seven projects in the SOPPOM program:


four SBO projects (strategic basic research)
three ICON projects (industrial cooperative research)
All four SBO projects are interlinked with each other and provide output for the different
ICON projects in the program.
Program manager: Fabrice Stassin (Umicore)
Consortium: Umicore, Solvay, Agfa, AGC, Novopolymers, A.Schulman Plastics, Imec,
UHasselt, UGent, KULeuven, UAntwerpen, Flamac