H2020 Grant for Perovskite-based Lighting, Wearables, Fabric Devices Approved

The EC is now boosting the research activities in the field of perovskites by the PeroCUBE project, which is funded under Horizon 2020. 

On April 1, 14 European partners from industry and science in 10 countries launched the joint project to develop new applications in the fields of lighting, photovoltaics and telecommunications. 

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP in Dresden are involved in the project and will contribute their expertise over the next 3.5 years.

Perovskites are an emerging technology for OLAE-based devices that have the potential to revolutionize the photovoltaic sector and also the lighting sector. 

They are a class of low-cost but high-quality materials that exhibit performance similar to “conventional” semiconductors while they can be processed by simple and cheaper means. 

Perovskites have strong potential to dominate the OLAE market with the focus given on flexible, lightweight electronic devices. They are intensively studied and optimized for energy generation applications as they are considered the next “big thing” in photovoltaics (PVs) with efficient perovskite-based PVs will be introduced to the market in the next five years. 

Recently, perovskites have been demonstrated to yield efficient light-emitting devices.

EU H2020-funded project PeroCUBE aims at developing flexible, lightweight perovskite-based electronics, creating new commercial opportunities for the lighting, energy and telecom industries. 

The consortium brings together 14 industrial and academic partners from 10 European countries.

This collaboration, which engages the industry, academia and research organizations, represents the whole value chain and breeding ground needed to develop a new generation of sustainable perovskite-based devices. 

This European consortium will allow the demonstration of the technology’s viability as a commercial product. The project will last 42 months for a total requested EU contribution of €5.6 million.

The organic-inorganic metal halide 3D and lower dimensional semiconductors (usually referred to these days as perovskite), already used in PV technologies, have a strong potential to dominate the OLAE (Organic and Large Area Electronics) market by providing advanced lighting solutions (Perovskite-based LED, Pe-LED).

PeroCUBE has two main objectives:

• Producing efficient, simple and low-cost light sources closer to natural light sources;
• Supporting the development of more stable and sustainable, efficient and low-cost solar panels.
   

By combining these promising technologies, the consortium seeks to develop a new generation of Visual Light Communication (VLC) and LiFi (light fidelity) standard, widening the scope for human-centric lighting (HCL), data transmission, wearables and IoT applications that do not cause harm to humans nor the environment.

The partners in the consortium agree that the project will take the development of perovskite-based optoelectronic devices a step further.

Within “PeroCUBE” large area illumination panels will be developed, which provide homogeneous illumination according to the concept of human-centered illumination. Such components will offer excellent value for money and help the European industry maintain its industry leadership in the field of lighting. This should open new doors for the industry. 

“PeroCUBE will provide proof that the specific class of perovskite materials can actually be used in commercial objects such as light panels and wearables,” said Dr. Sylvain Nicolay of CSEM.

“Our researchers are very pleased to be able to contribute to the development of this fascinating technology. Perovskite technology is undergoing a development that is as rapid and fascinating as OLED technology,” added Dr. Christian May, head of Division Flexible Organic Electronics at the Fraunhofer FEP. “Therefore, we would like to use our extensive know-how in the characterization and encapsulation of large-area and flexible OLEDs and achieve a reasonable combination of these technologies.”