Christian Schmiga and Oussama Er-Raji of Fraunhofer ISE Honored for their Research Work

"These awards and other excellent scientific contributions at EU PVSEC 2024 show that Europe continues to play in the top league in terms of PV technology," said Prof. Dr. Stefan Glunz, Head of the Photovoltaics Division at Fraunhofer ISE. "Congratulations to the award winners!"

Christian Schmiga's poster entitled "Optimizing Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Ni/Cu/Ag-Plated Contacts on i-TOPCon Solar Cells" addresses the photovoltaic industry's need to use significantly less silver in the medium term as production capacities increase worldwide. Replacing silver contacts on solar cells with a copper-based metallization is a promising solution. Christian Schmiga received significant support for his scientific work from his colleague Abdelaziz Boudellioua.

Oussama Er-Raji's conference presentation "Tailoring Perovskite Crystallization and Interfacial Passivation in Efficient Fully Textured Perovskite Silicon Tandem Solar Cells" deals with the so-called "hybrid process route", which combines vapor deposition and wet-chemical deposition processes to fabricate the perovskite subcell. This route allows the researchers to use existing commercially available, textured silicon solar cells as the bottom subcell in a tandem structure. With this approach, which shows promise for industrial production, Er-Raji's research team at Fraunhofer ISE recently succeeded in producing a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell with 31.6 percent efficiency.

Berkay Uygun also won an EU PVSEC Student Award. The scientist from the Center for Solar Energy Research and Applications ODTÜ-GÜNAM, received the award for his contribution "Local p+ Poly-Si Passivating Contacts Realized by Direct FlexTrail Printing of Boron Ink and Selective Alkaline Etching for High Efficiency TOPCon Based Solar Cells". The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists from Fraunhofer ISE and was written as part of a longer research stay by Berkay Uygun at Fraunhofer ISE.