Organic photovoltaic cells with all inkjet printed layers and freedom of form

Large volume production of organic photovoltaics by roll-to-roll compatible techniques is a field of intensive research. Inkjet printing is a well-known deposition technique in the graphical and textile industry, and has several advantages for the production of OPV as it is contactless and has economic materials use. More importantly, cells and modules can be directly patterned during R2R production and by digital fabrication of OPV altering the cell or module design does not require changes of hardware. This makes inkjet printing suitable for OPV with unconventional shapes, but also allows for customizable large scale production. Therefore, inkjet printing offers the flexibility required at this stage of technological and market development of OPV. We have been able, for the first time, to create fully inkjet printed OPVs with a performance of more than 75% of its reference prepared by spin coating and evaporation. Large areas were printed in single passes with an industrial printer head using non-halogenated solvents only. An inverted OPV stack of 6 layers was printed using 4 types of inks. ITO was replaced by an inkjet printed Ag current collecting grid combined with highly conducting PEDOT:PSS. In this contribution we will discuss the additive effect of printing multiple layers on the OPV performance. Furthermore, the performance of cells of different shapes and sizes (up to 6.5 cm₂) will be discussed. This work confirms the potential of inkjet printing for OPV as well as printed electronics in general.