AI-Robotic Platform Hits 27% Efficiency in Perovskite Cells

Researchers from institutions including Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Oxford, Peking University, and Zhejiang University have developed a fully autonomous, closed-loop AI–robotics platform for perovskite solar cell fabrication. The study was published in the journal Engineering and represents one of the most comprehensive high-throughput solar cell research efforts to date.

At the heart of the system is a Recipe Language Model (RLM) trained on approximately 60,000 perovskite-related scientific publications. A seven-layer AI architecture handles everything from recipe generation and dataset construction to reasoning, evaluation, and optimization — with each experimental cycle feeding structured data back into the model to continuously improve future recommendations.

Physical fabrication is carried out by 11 robotic boxes encompassing 101 functional units, more than 1,500 components, and over 4,300 controllable parameters. The first three boxes manage chemical storage and dispensing, while boxes 4–11 perform spin-coating, laser processing, thermal annealing, vacuum thin-film deposition, and in situ characterization using integrated cameras and sensors. The system also generates a real-time digital twin of every process.

The platform progressed through four optimization stages: an initial exploratory phase yielded efficiencies between 0% and 17.4%; introducing self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and additives pushed this to ~23%; surface passivation reached 25.6%; and the final configuration achieved 27.0% (certified at 26.5%). In total, 50,764 devices were fabricated and tested during the study.

Perovskite solar cells are widely regarded as the most promising next-generation photovoltaic technology, with the potential to surpass conventional silicon panels in both cost and performance. Automating the optimization process at this scale significantly shortens the research-to-production pipeline, making commercial high-efficiency perovskite modules a more tangible near-term goal for the global solar industry.