Together with wind energy, photovoltaics or PV is the mainstay of a future global energy supply that is based 100% on renewable sources. We conduct research and development to make PV even more environmentally sustainable – for example, by economizing on consumables to achieve even more solar power per square meter of surface area (or per gram of silicon, glass, etc.).

We are focusing on the following areas in particular:

• Solar modules without plastic encapsulation (N.I.C.E.TM technology - production and integration)
• Caracterization of solar cells and modules

We have laboratory equipment for this purpose to optimize production processes:

• Class A+AA+ LED flasher up to 1.0 x 2.0 m2 module size (Wavelabs)
• Laminator for glass-foil and glass-glass modules up to 640 x 480 mm2 (E.E.T.S.)
• Outdoor test bench with monitoring for mono- and bifacial modules (self-made)
• Dispenser up to 525 x 525 mm2 (NordsonAsymtek)
• Climatic test chamber
• Hand tool for plasma cleaning of surfaces (Relyon)
• Multi-tool for, e.g., PL/EL/Grid Resistance (self-made)
• QSSPC and SunsVoc (Sinton Instruments)
• LEXT laser scanning microscope (Olympus)
• IonSlicer for double-sided Ar-ion polishing of STEM samples (JEOL)
• SEM with STEM and EDX functions (JEOL)