Energy Harvesting

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Invention Up-to-date, the existing methods to fabricate 3-D substrate rely on lithography, plasma etching or wet etching with poor scalability, controllability and high cost. In this invention, 3-D nanostructures are fabricated on Al substrate, which is light weight, flexible and low cost. And the process is easy to control and scalable, thus it is far better than the present and alternative technologies. Meanwhile, the 3-D nanostructures have unique light trapping and scattering property, which can improve light absorption as compared with the planar substrate for conventional thin film photovoltaic applications. Marketing Opportunity The primary market for this invention is the market of thin film photovoltaic products. This type of product can be used for both large scale solar power generation, including solar farm, building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), and small scale solar power generation for portable electronics, power saving for vehicles and off-grid power source. Key Benefits Enhanced light absorption capability which will lead to high performance photovoltaics Low processing cost Scalable and high through put process Light weight and flexible substrate