micromachines Article Manufacturing of All Inkjet-Printed Organic Photovoltaic Cell Arrays and Evaluating Their Suitability for Flexible Electronics Kalyan Yoti Mitra 1,*, Abdelrahman Alalawe 2,*, Stefanie Voigt 3, Christine Boeffel 3 and Reinhard R. Baumann 1,2 1 Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nanosystems ENAS, Printed Functionalities, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany;
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[email protected] 3 Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research, Functional Materials and Devices, 14476 Potsdam, Germany;
[email protected] (S.V.);
[email protected] (C.B.) * Correspondence:
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[email protected] (A.A.); Tel.: +49-371-45001458 (K.Y.M.); +49-371-53135410 (A.A.) Received: 22 October 2018; Accepted: 29 November 2018; Published: 4 December 2018 Abstract: The generation of electrical energy depending on renewable sources is rapidly growing and gaining serious attention due to its green sustainability. With fewer adverse impacts on the environment, the sun is considered as a nearly infinite source of renewable energy in the production of electrical energy using photovoltaic devices. On the other end, organic photovoltaic (OPV) is the class of solar cells that offers several advantages such as mechanical flexibility, solution processability, environmental friendliness, and being lightweight. In this research, we demonstrate the manufacturing route for printed OPV device arrays based on conventional architecture and using inkjet printing technology over an industrial platform. Inkjet technology is presently considered to be one of the most matured digital manufacturing technologies because it offers inherent additive nature and last stage customization flexibility (if the main goal is to obtain custom design devices).