Origami structure-based flexible crystalline silicon substrate

Abstract

Flexible solar cells are spotlighted as next-generation solar cells because they can be installed on uneven and movable surfaces. Among them, flexible crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells show relatively high efficiency and stability rather than other solar cells. However, flexible c-Si solar cells exhibit poor light absorption properties by their thin c-Si substrate. In this study, we present a novel strategy that can show flexible properties on thick c-Si wafers. This strategy is to achieve flexible property of thick c-Si wafers by employing an origami structure on the c-Si wafers. The origami structure could be flexible thanks to a spring shape configuration. As a result, the origami structure-based thick (~ 525 um) c-Si wafer shows outstanding flexibility compared to bare c-Si wafer. When the fabricated c-Si substrate is applied as a flexible photovoltaic device, we expect that inherent low light absorption property of thin c-Si photovoltaics can be thoroughly overcome.