Roll to Roll for Organic Photovoltaics (OPV)

The University of Michigan is a powerhouse of innovation. With one of the best nanofabrication facilities on the planet and the brainpower to match, a lot of extremely cool things are coming out of this institution, like this, and this. We work with a number of partners at UM, one of which is Dr. Stephen Forrest, and his team, led by Byeongseop Song.

Not content to go down avenues of research without a very specific goal in mind, this team brings ideas forward with commercial and production logistics thought out. Bringing an idea to its eventual ends, and doing your research with that in mind has so many advantages, which is why Dr. Forrest recently had us create an in-chamber roll to roll system.

Byeongseop Song, a University of Michigan post-doctoral researcher, in front of one of the Angstrom tools in the lab.

Song explains their plans for the system: “We will be using the roll to roll system to fabricate organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells in our lab. We will connect separate organic vapor phase deposition chamber designed here to roll-to-roll machine to complete the system. This system allows us to fabricate OPVs on a flexible substrate with fully automatic control. After the fabrication, we can unload the sample through the glovebox and finish the encapsulation in N2 atmosphere for the final product. We are targeting to produce >8% power conversion efficiency on this technology, which is fairly high in OPV field.”

Conducting their research with the types of substrates, and in the same processes that the eventual scaled up production will require allows them to work the kinks out during the research and development phase, and prove their concept in a much more complete manner.

We are proud that we get to help bring these brilliant scientists’ ideas into the world in these ways, and are particularly proud when people like Byeongseop have things like this to say: “I cannot find other companies better than Angstrom for this type of thing.”

The in-chamber, roll to roll carrier in the system heading to University of Michigan.

Having arrived in Brazil, our partner’s logistics team takes the lead, taking it out of the wooden box so that it can fit through the door of the facility. The journey resulted in the standard small bumps and dents that are categorized and logged so that our installation team can quickly and effectively get the system up and running, which they do.

Finally, all that’s left to do is to fabricate some superconducting circuits, and further the field of quantum computing. Our partners at Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas (CBPF) expressed their excitement at having gained the capabilities  of partnering with us in this translated LinkedIn post:

 

It is with great enthusiasm that we announce the arrival of the newest equipment, from Angstrom Engineering, to the Quantum Technologies Laboratory of CBPF. This laboratory is complementary to Labnano, one of the strategic laboratories of SisNANO – the National System of Nanotechnology Laboratories of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI).

SisNANO is comprised of a set of laboratories focused on research, development and innovation (RD&I) in nanosciences and nanotechnologies, with the essential characteristic of being multi-user and open access to public and private institutions.

Acquired with funding from Finep and support from MCTI, the new equipment will allow CBPF to advance in the manufacture of superconducting quantum nanodevices, such as Josephson junctions and SQUIDS. These devices are essential for the development of future quantum chips, which promise to transform areas such as computing, secure communication and metrology.

The impact of this advance is also connected to related projects funded by FAPERJ, CNPq and Petrobras, consolidating a robust research ecosystem in Brazil.

This achievement reinforces the commitment of CBPF and MCTI to leading the frontier of scientific research, contributing to enabling the country to compete in a global scenario marked by disruptive and strategic advances.

We would like to thank the institutions involved and the professionals who made this achievement possible. We invite the scientific, technological and industrial community to closely monitor the transformative results that this new infrastructure will provide.

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