Charging smartwatches, keyboards etc. could soon be a thing of the past: A spin-off from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) is printing solar cells for almost every electronic device - even for indoor use.
On average, every person owns seven electronic devices. There are several billion devices in use worldwide - and with the Internet of Things (IoT), the number is growing. These need to be recharged or their batteries changed regularly. The Empa spin-off 'Perovskia Solar' has therefore specialized in tailor-made solar cells for every conceivable electronic device.
Conventional silicon solar cells are complex and expensive to customize and are inefficient in poor lighting conditions. "We can print new types of perovskite solar cells in any size - and at low cost," promises company founder Anand Verma. "With their high efficiency, they can power almost any electronic device indoors in bright home and office lighting."
Perovskites have excellent properties: they absorb light particularly efficiently and conduct the generated electricity well. Until now, however, perovskite-based solar cells were not stable enough and not very durable. Anand Verma therefore spent five years at Empa researching printing processes for perovskite solar cells before setting up his own company in 2020.
The Empa spin-off supplies over 25 international companies with solar cells for the IoT and consumer electronics. Perovskia Solar recently built a factory in Aubonne in the canton of Vaud. Every year, 1 million Perovskit elements are to be printed there to equip electronic devices with solar cells and supply them with electricity.
Vacuum processes such as CVD and PVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition, Physical Vapor Deposition) are used for regular solar cell coating. The Functional Polymers department at Empa also masters these processes. A group in the department called Functional Thin Film Solution Processing deals with printing as a manufacturing process. It was here that founder Anand Verma laid the foundations for Perovskia Solar with his research.
