Quality control of roll-to-roll processed polymer solar modules by complementary imaging methods

We applied complementary imaging methods to investigate processing failures of roll-to-roll solution processed polymer solar modules based on polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunctions. For investigation of processing deficiencies in solar modules we employed dark lock-in thermography (DLIT), electroluminescence (ELI) and photoluminescence/reflection imaging (PLI/RI) complemented by optical imaging (OI). The combination of all high resolution images allowed us to allocate the origin of processing errors to a specific deposition process, i.e. the insufficient coverage of an electrode interlayer. The investigation can be divided into a fast DLIT overview of the module and a successive more detailed analysis of the suspicious region by all imaging methods. ► Investigation of processing failures of polymer solar modules. ► Combination of several high resolution imaging techniques. ► Creation of failure mechanism model.