NCD

< Lucida GS-P360 >

NCD Co., Ltd. has recently supplied Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)  with its dedicated ALD equipment (Lucida GS-P360) for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). This is equipment for depositing SnO2 thin films, which plays a role as the electron transport layer (ETL) in high-efficiency PSCs. The Lucida GS-P360 enhances high productivity as it can simultaneously processes ALD on multiple glass substrates, making it suitable for mass production.
SnO2 layers deposited via the ALD process allows for the uniform thin film deposition on the nanometer scale, offering higher light transmittance in the visible spectrum compared to TiO2. Additionally, SnO2 exhibits high conductivity and excellent stability. PSCs are gaining great attention as next-generation solar cells due to their simplicity in fabrication, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. KEPCO has focused on PSC research and achieved an efficiency of 19.8% on 50x50 mm² glass substrates. They are targeting commercialization with 150x150 mm² glass substrate modules, achieving 18% efficiency, and are developing a 20 kW-class building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system for demonstration, anticipating full-scale commercialization within a few years.
Although ALD processes generally offer advantages such as low-temperature processing, superior thin film quality, process reliability, and scalability, the slow deposition rate can significantly increase production costs. However, NCD's ALD equipment for PSCs employs NCD's proprietary high-productivity ALD technology, enabling the processing of SnO2 on 180x180 mm² glass substrates, achieving an outstanding throughput of over 100 glasses per hour, even with the use of high-temperature Sn precursors that are typically challenging to handle. Moreover, the supplied equipment is capable of handling large-area glass substrates (360x360 mm²), facilitating the manufacture of large-area BIPV PSCs. Specifically, for BIPV applications, because glass substrates thicker than 2 mm are used, the heating of the glass substrates for the ALD process can be time-consuming, limiting productivity. However, NCD's Lucida GS-P360, equipped with a proprietary heating system (patent pending), significantly reduces the time required for heating thick glass substrates, thereby ensuring high productivity.
NCD Co., Ltd. is expected to lead the high-productivity ALD technology and equipment market for PSC manufacturing and will continue to strive to grow as the world's leading ALD company.