Solibro CIGS Thin-Film Technology Reaches World-Record Efficiency of 17.4 Percent

Solibro GmbH, a subsidiary of Q-Cells SE, has marked a ground-breaking world record with its thin-film technology CIGS. Solibro’s thin-film Q.SMART module technology is now the first in the entire thin-film sector to achieve a solar module efficiency of 17.4% (aperture area). The new record has been confirmed by the independent Fraunhofer ISE Institute, located in Freiburg, Germany.

The record test module, with size 16 cm2, was fabricated using processes fully scalable to cost-effective mass production. The co-evaporation CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) process uses metal flux profiles, temperature profiles as well as process time similar to Solibro’s current production.

“We are very proud of this result as it demonstrates the leadership of the CIGS technology produced by Q-Cells’ subsidiary Solibro. The current record verifies the feasibility of the efficiency roadmap of the Q.SMART module targeting an average aperture efficiency out of series production of up to 16.7% in 2016,” said Lars Stolt, CTO of Solibro.

In March 2011, a Q.SMART thin-film module marked a world-record with an independently confirmed efficiency rating of 14.7%, which still is the world-record for monolithically integrated CIGS thin film modules in series production today.

The CIGS technology behind Q.SMART was developed in 1983 by the Ångström Solar Center at Uppsala University, Sweden, commercialized by the spin-off company Solibro in 2006, and acquired by Q-Cells in 2009. Q.SMART is produced in Thalheim, Germany, at the company’s own factory with a total nominal production capacity of 135 MWp.