Anna Forrester
PARC, a Xerox company, will develop a prototype micro-photovoltaic cell printer for the Energy Department as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy‘s Micro-scale Optimized Solar-cell Arrays with Integrated Concentration program.
Xerox said Wednesday the program aims to facilitate the high-volume, economical production of micro-PV cell arrays.
The company added that PARC will utilize digital xerographic assembly to build a printer that uses sand-sized chiplets as “ink,” which are then digitally placed and electrically interconnected into arrays.
“This type of printing gives us a whole new way to think about making PV panels, especially as we develop and target this technology to support the MOSAIC program goal of developing lightweight, low-cost and high-efficient concentrated PV system, using millions of tiny solar cells on a panel,” said Jeng Ping Lu, a researcher at PARC.
Xerox noted that the project team will work with Sandia National Laboratories on digital manufacturing techniques and demonstrate the prototype printer using two types of backplanes.
