Solliance and imec join forces in thin film PV R&D

LEUVEN, BELGIUM: Imec and Solliance announced that imec will be a full partner of Solliance and will integrate its thin film PV R&D efforts in Solliance. With imec as a partner, Solliance aims to be an R&D cluster bringing thin film solar energy technology to excellence. The announcement will be celebrated at the annual imec booth reception at PVSEC in Hamburg on 7 September at the imec booth, hall B4G booth C11, at 16.30 o’clock.

Solliance works in close cooperation with industry, both to fulfill short-term needs of industry, and to convey promising programs of mid- and long-term research. It focuses on three main thin film technologies: thin film Si, alternatives for CIGS, and organic photovoltaics (OPV). For these principal themes Solliance will collaborate with the industry at its facilities in Eindhoven as well as at imec’s facilities in Leuven, providing direct answers to the industry’s most pressing questions.

Solliance also concentrates on generic technologies that will be vital to any thin film PV industry: testing, characterization and monitoring, laser technologies, light management by mechanical texturization, transparent conductive layers, monolithic interconnection, new OPV device development, thin film deposition techniques, sheet-to-sheet processing, roll-to-roll (R2R) processing, and in-line monitoring.

Luc Van den hove, president and CEO, imec, said: “The joining of forces in Solliance creates focus and critical mass, needed to be a top level player in the world of thin film PV.” And Hein Willems, Solliance’s managing director: “Strengthened by imec as the fifth member, our research now stretches across the entire field, from fundamentals of materials science to sophisticated production technologies.”

Imec specifically excels in nanoelectronics, and harbors CIGS-related and OPV research teams of significant volume and expertise. It will now continue its thin film R&D within the Solliance cooperation.

Solliance’s ambition is to strengthen the position of the Eindhoven-Leuven-Aachen triangle (ELAT region) as a world player in thin film PV. Solliance now creates synergy among more than 250 researchers with this common goal. Solliance aims to realize this ambition by joint use of state-of-the-art infrastructure, alignment of research programs, and close cooperation with the solar business community. Solliance is amongst others financially supported by the Dutch Province of Brabant.