Demonstration of Industrially Scalable Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) Process for Production of High-Efficiency Perovskite Photovoltaics

Silicon-Perovskite tandem solar cells have the potential to bring 30% conversion efficiency to rooftop and utility scale PV compared to 22% of today. CSIRO has developed a patented novel method for fabricating the perovskite layer on top of any conductive glass or silicon substrate. The method shown here is scalable, producing films of a desired thickness and bandgap to suit the current silicon wafers. The method developed is industrially relevant fitting in with modern thin film fabrication techniques. Consistent film thickness and uniformity are crucial to high performance solar cells. Defects within a film at sub-micron scales are the cause for short circuits rendering the cell ineffective. The work presented here demonstrates how our chemical vapour deposition method produces reproducible thin films. As thickness variability is critical to overall performance, we have successfully demonstrated variability of less than 10nm across a 10cm2 area, free of defects. Most importantly, films being produced in this work are at scale, compatible to common wafers and ready for translation to silicon substrates and tandem device fabrication. In this study we use several methods to critically analyse our thin films, including surface profilometry, x-ray diffraction, and optical/luminescence techniques. The next step in this work is to stack the perovskite layer on top of silicon substrates to produce high performance tandem cells.