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At present, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are still superior in performance to most other transparent conductors. Results on opto-electronic modeling and design optimization of TCOs are presented using a monolithically integrated CIGS cell configuration as case. For various cell dimensions and TCO characteristics, the cell output was determined for both bare TCOs and TCOs with a metallic grid. This study showed that considerable efficiency enhancement (17% increase in power output) can be achieved for metal grid TCO combinations compared to single layer TCOs. Conductivity improvement has been experimentally verified on both commercial ITO PET foil as well as on ZnO:Al coated glass with electrochemically deposited metal grids. Conductivities below 0,1 Ω/sq were reached and 80 times and 400 times conductivity improvements were obtained at a transparency loss of only 3% and 6%, respectively.

Various transparent conducting materials are compared based on their transparency versus sheet resistance characteristics. At present, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are still superior in performance compared to various recent alternatives and can only be surpassed by the combination of TCOs with a metal grid. Results on modeling and design optimization are presented using a monolithically integrated CIGS cell configuration as case. This study showed that considerable efficiency enhancement (17% in power output) can be achieved for metal grid TCO combinations compared to single TCOs. Conductivity improvement has been experimentally verified on both commercial ITO PET foil as well as on ZnO coated glass with electrochemically deposited metal grids. Conductivities below 0,1 Ohm/sq were reached and 80 times and 400 times conductivity improvements were obtained at a transparency loss of only 3% and 6%, respectively. It was also found that electrochemical deposition results in more conductive and more transparent grids than obtained by Ag-ink screen printing. © 2011 IEEE.

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) are widely used in optoelectronic applications and are a vital part in thin film solar cells. However, these materials have some drawback, such as brittleness and a maximum transmittance for a certain sheet resistance. Alternative materials, such as metal foils, nanowires and organic conductors are discussed and ranked for their suitability in solar cells. At this moment, organic conductors have a performance inferior to inorganic conductors. Recent results obtained at TNO demonstrate that the combination of TCOs and metal grids are the most viable option for improvement of TCO performance beyond the limits of a single material. For this demonstration commercial ITO on PET was used, on which metal grid was applied by easily upscalable wet chemical deposition techniques. The sheet resistivity was increased by a factor of over 400, with less than 5% loss additional in transmittance. A sheet resistance of 0.1 Ω/sq was obtained with a transparency above 83%. © 2010 IEEE.

In many flexible electronic devices transparent conductive oxide (TCO) window layers are used for current collection. The trade-off between the electrical resistance and optical transmission of TCOs results in power losses. Increasing the electrical conductivity by combining metallic grids with TCOs enables reduction of these power losses. Patterned electroplating is presented as a viable deposition technique for grids on plastic foils. Through selective activation of the substrate surface grids were electrodeposited on PET and ITO-coated PET-foil. The grids have a high electrical conductivity and significantly lower the ITO sheet resistance, while remaining a high transparency.

Integration of functions in single components is pursued in order to manufacture smaller and smarter polymer micro devices at less cost, through e.g. less assembly steps. It requires integration on both product and production side. This paper addresses the use of molded interconnect device (MID) technology for the integration of electronic circuitry into polymer products. Shown will be new approaches of selective metallization for creating conductive tracks. The supply chain of MID parts is still seen as vulnerable, resulting in concerns on reliability of production and product. A solution is integration of processes in one production cell. Shown is the feasibility of integrating a surface patterning process into an injection molding tool.