Flisom is a developer and manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) thin film solar cells, located near Zurich, Switzerland. The company produces high-efficiency CIGS thin film solar modules on flexible plastic foil using proprietary roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques. The innovative manufacturing technology enables a competitive price comparison with PV production systems. In addition, the lightweight, flexible, jet-black and thin solar panels can be used to provide integrated solar PV systems. This is about half the cost of PV technology based on crystalline silicon. Potential applications for flexible lightweight CIGS modules include built-in photovoltaics (BIPV), applied photovoltaics (BAPV),
Flisom AG was founded in 2005 as a spin-off company of ETH Zurich, and has a long-standing research partnership with Empa – the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, which has been developing this type of flexible solar cell to world record efficiencies of 20.4%. The world record for CIGS cells based in laboratory ZSW () and stands at 21.7% as of July 2015. Flisom`s research partner Empa is still the holder of the world record with 20.4% cell efficiency on a polymeric substrate.
The company’s production technology is based on a roll-to-roll manufacturing process of flexible solar modules, involving deposition of thin films of CIGS absorb material onto a polymer foil substrate made of polyimide. The key processes of depositing the material in this manner has been developed by the company itself. As of 2015, a 15 MW pilot production line is being commissioned in a new facility in Niederhasli, near Zurich, Switzerland.