Development of an ultralight, flexible a-Si solar cell submodule

Abstract An ultralight, flexible a-Si solar cell fabricated on a polyimide film substrate has been developed. It was found that prebaking the polyimide film substrate improved the output performance of the cell by reducing the amount of H 2 0 and polymers released from the substrate. Also, using an i-layer fabricated at high temperature (250°C) and a p-layer fabricated at low temperature (80°C) improved the cell's output performance to a level of over 10%. A maximum output of 782.4 mW and a power-to-weight ratio of 340 mW/g were obtained for an integrated-type flexible a-Si solar cell submodule with a size of 113 mm × 120 mm.