III-Vs at scale: a PV manufacturing cost analysis of the thin film vapor-liquid-solid growth mode

The authors present a manufacturing cost analysis for producing thin-film indium phosphide modules by combining a novel thin-film vapor–liquid–solid (TF-VLS) growth process with a standard monolithic module platform. The example cell structure is ITO/n-TiO2/p-InP/Mo. For a benchmark scenario of 12% efficient modules, the module cost is estimated to be $0.66/W(DC) and the module cost is calculated to be around $0.36/W(DC) at a long-term potential efficiency of 24%. The manufacturing cost for the TF-VLS growth portion is estimated to be ~$23/m 2 ,as ignificant reduction compared with traditional metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The analysis here suggests the TF-VLS growth mode could enable lower-cost, high-efficiency III-V photovoltaics compared with manufacturing methods used today and open up possibilities for other optoelectronic applications as well. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley &S ons, Ltd.