Konarka Technologies Inc. said it has demonstrated for the first time the making of solar cells by inkjet printing. 

Inkjet printing is commonly used in the controlled deposition of solutions of functional materials in specific locations on a substrate, and it can provide easy and fast deposition of polymer films over a large area, Konarka said in a statement. "The demonstration confirms that organic solar cells can be processed with printing technologies with little or no loss compared to 'clean room' semiconductor technologies such as spin coating."

The performance of the highly efficient inkjet printed organic bulk heterojunction solar cells are described in a paper, “High Photovoltaic Performance of Inkjet Printed Polymer: Fullerene Blends” by Stelios A. Choulis, Claudia N. Hoth, Dr. Pavel Schilinsky and Dr. Christoph J. Brabec, all of Konarka, published recently in Advanced Materials.

Inkjet printing could become a way to manufacturer solar cells of various colors and patterns for products with lower power requirements, like indoor or sensor applications. The technique is consideredy promising because the polymer devices can be fabricated easily with various substrates, and it requires no additional patterning.

Spun out of the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2001, Konarka has secured a total of $105 million in private financing from a number of investors, including Menlo Park venture firms 3i Group, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and New Enterprise Associates. Its European headquarters are in Nuremberg, Germany, and it has business development offices in Asia and a research and development facility in Austria.

For more information, visit: konarka.com