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Recently verified by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Oerlikon Solar has repeatedly reproduced amorphous silicon (a-Si) single junction PV cells with stabilized conversion efficiencies of over 10%. The company said that this was a new record for single junction cells and was achieved with the use of its proprietary TCO front and back contact technology.

“We successfully implemented several innovative modifications of key processes, leading to this new record in stabilized cell efficiency which presents a historic milestone for amorphous silicon technology,” noted Dr. Johannes Meier, CTO Thin Film at Oerlikon Solar: “We are confident that our ability to repeatedly achieve record results can be transferred into mass production soon.”

Oerlikon Solar said that they expect to have customers in commercial production with this technology by the end of 2010 and achieve module conversion efficiencies of 10% or more.