David Levy

Natcore Technology is developing a new back-contact back-junction cell metallization based upon multilayer foil laminates. Capable of being produced in low-cost roll-to-roll processes, the laminates consist of aluminum foils bonded to an insulating film, yielding for example a preformed metal / dielectric / metal stack that can be used to contact the cell. The laminates are patterned and used to construct a cell with a high emitter fraction and point base contacts. In typical cells the emitter is a silicon heterojunction while the point base contacts are made using various modes of laser doping as well as carrier selective contacts. Characterization of these contacts will be described. The performance of various cell structures with multilayer aluminum foil metallization will be discussed along with advantages of this approach.

David Levy earned a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania before obtaining a Ph.D. degree from MIT. He joined the Eastman Kodak Research Labs in 1992, where he was a Senior Research Scientist. During his time with Kodak, he worked with nanoparticle dispersions, solution-processable inorganic semiconductors, and was the inventor of Kodak’s Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition process (SALD) process. The main focus of this work involved low cost, atmospheric methods to produce thin film transistors. In 2012 Dr. Levy joined Natcore Technology as the Director of Research and Technology, working on crystalline silicon solar cells. The recent main focus at Natcore has been low cost back contact devices. Dr. Levy has been granted 93 US patents and has been an invited presenter at meetings of the Materials Research Society and the American Vacuum Society.

This event is co-sponsored by Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technology (QESST).