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© 2016, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Emerging classes ofconcentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules reach efficiencies that are far greater than those of even the highest performance flat-plate PV technologies, with architectures that have the potential to provide the lowest cost of energy in locations with high direct normal irradiance (DNI). A disadvantage is their inability to effectively use diffuse sunlight, thereby constraining widespread geographic deployment and limiting performance even under the most favorable DNI conditions. This study introduces a module design that integrates capabilities in flat-plate PV directly with the most sophisticated CPV technologies, for capture of both direct and diffuse sunlight, thereby achieving efficiency in PV conversion of the global solar radiation. Specific examples of this scheme exploit commodity silicon (Si) cells integrated with two different CPV module designs, where they capture light that is not efficiently directed by the concentrator optics onto large-scale arrays of miniature multijunction (MJ) solar cells that use advanced III-V semiconductor technologies. In this CPV+scheme ("+" denotes the addition of diffuse collector), the Si and MJ cells operate independently on indirect and direct solar radiation, respectively. On-sun experimental studies of CPV+modules at latitudes of 35.9886° N (Durham, NC), 40.1125° N (Bondville, IL), and 38.9072° N (Washington, DC) show improvements in absolute module efficiencies of between 1.02% and 8.45% over values obtained using otherwise similar CPV modules, depending on weather conditions. These concepts have the potential to expand the geographic reach and improve the cost-effectiveness of the highest efficiency forms of PV power generation.

Although compound semiconductors like gallium arsenide have a substantial performance advantage over silicon in photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications, these do not outweigh the costly process of growing large, high-quality layers of these materials and transferring them to flexible or transparent substrates for use in devices such as solar cells, night vision cameras and wireless communication systems. But now John Rogers and his team demonstrate a new fabrication approach that may remove this disadvantage. They grow films of GaAs and AlGaAs in thick, multilayered assemblies in a single deposition sequence, then release the individual layers and distribute them over foreign substrates by printing. The technological potential of this strategy to large-area applications is illustrated with the fabrication of GaAs devices such as field-effect transistors on glass and photovoltaic modules on sheets of plastic. Although compound semiconductors like gallium arsenide (GaAs) offer advantages over silicon for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications, these do not outweigh the costly process of growing large layers of these materials and transferring them to appropriate substrates. However, a new fabrication approach is now demonstrated: films of GaAs and AlGaAs are grown in thick, multilayered assemblies in a single sequence; the individual layers are then released and distributed over foreign substrates by printing. Compound semiconductors like gallium arsenide (GaAs) provide advantages over silicon for many applications, owing to their direct bandgaps and high electron mobilities. Examples range from efficient photovoltaic devices1,2 to radio-frequency electronics3,4 and most forms of optoelectronics5,6. However, growing large, high quality wafers of these materials, and intimately integrating them on silicon or amorphous substrates (such as glass or plastic) is expensive, which restricts their use. Here we describe materials and fabrication concepts that address many of these challenges, through the use of films of GaAs or AlGaAs grown in thick, multilayer epitaxial assemblies, then separated from each other and distributed on foreign substrates by printing. This method yields large quantities of high quality semiconductor material capable of device integration in large area formats, in a manner that also allows the wafer to be reused for additional growths. We demonstrate some capabilities of this approach with three different applications: GaAs-based metal semiconductor field effect transistors and logic gates on plates of glass, near-infrared imaging devices on wafers of silicon, and photovoltaic modules on sheets of plastic. These results illustrate the implementation of compound semiconductors such as GaAs in applications whose cost structures, formats, area coverages or modes of use are incompatible with conventional growth or integration strategies.

Bend Me, Stretch Me In the push toward flexible electronics, much research has focused on using organic conducting materials, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), because they are more readily processed using scalable techniques. Park et al. (p. 977 ) have developed a series of techniques for depositing and assembling inorganic LEDs onto glass, plastic, or rubber. Conventional processing techniques are used to connect the LEDs in order to create flexible, stretchable displays, which, because the active diode material only covers a small part of the substrate, are mostly transparent.

In this work, a multijunction solar cell is developed on a GaSb substrate that can efficiently convert the long-wavelength photons typically lost in a multijunction solar cell into electricity. A combination of modeling and experimental device development is used to optimize the performance of a dual junction GaSb/InGaAsSb concentrator solar cell. Using transfer printing, a commercially available GaAs-based triple junction cell is stacked mechanically with the GaSb-based materials to create a four-terminal, five junction cell with a spectral response range covering the region containing >99% of the available direct-beam power from the Sun reaching the surface of the Earth. The cell is assembled in a mini-module with a geometric concentration ratio of 744 suns on a two-axis tracking system and demonstrated a combined module efficiency of 41.2%, measured outdoors in Durham, NC. Taking into account the measured transmission of the optics gives an implied cell efficiency of 44.5%.

Displays using direct light emission from microscale inorganic light-emitting diodes (μILEDs) have the potential to be very bright and also very power efficient. High-throughput technologies that accurately and cost-effectively assemble microscale devices on display substrates with high yield are key enablers for μILED displays. Elastomer stamp transfer printing is such a candidate assembly technology. A variety of μILED displays have been designed and fabricated by transfer printing, including passive-matrix and active-matrix displays on glass and plastic substrates.

We developed means to form multilayer superstructures of large collections of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) configured in horizontally aligned arrays, random networks, and complex geometries of arrays and networks on a wide range of substrates. The approach involves guided growth of SWNTs on crystalline and amorphous substrates followed by sequential, multiple step transfer of the resulting collections of tubes to target substrates, such as high-k thin dielectrics on silicon wafers, transparent plates of glass, cylindrical tubes and other curved surfaces, and thin, flexible sheets of plastic. Electrical measurements on dense, bilayer superstructures, including crossbars, random networks, and aligned arrays on networks of SWNTs reveal some important characteristics of representative systems. These and other layouts of SWNTs might find applications not only in electronics but also in areas such as optoelectronics, sensors, nanomechanical systems, and microfluidics.