Dr. Zin won the federally funded 2020 Department of Energy DOE SETO Grant with the total award value of $380,000.
Through this DOE project, we expect the following outcomes:
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- The development of a novel Ozone Oxide, a tunneling layer to be used in the high efficiency crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells
- Development of the comprehensive characterization techniques to determine the performance degradation of the Ozone Oxide
- These characterization techniques can be applied widely on other existing tunneling dielectrics
- Exploiting the advantages of the novel Ozone Oxide, high efficiency c-Si solar cells can be developed with low cost and high throughput techniques
The central objectives of our DOE project are:
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- Adopting the techniques developed in this project, we expect to lower the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of manufacturing c-Si solar cells by 8 to 13%, relative to PERC technology
- Postdocs and students in this project will have the first hands to learn advanced characterization techniques and relevant PV technologies
- This project will also nurture next generation research leaders with necessary skills applicable to PV and other related industry sectors
- This project will pave the way for winning the multi-year funding from the funding agencies such as DOE with the total award value of up to 3 to 4 million.