The Lab_PV facility is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery covering numerous aspects of silicon PV Cell and photodetector technology and testing. The key point is flexibility both in device and materials design, processing, and testing. Lab capabilities start from TCAD design, with workstations equipped with state of art GPUs and software, and then go to materials processing, with UHV deposition of metals, semiconductors, alloys, TCOs, and dielectrics by PVD, pattering by photolithography through mask aligners and screen printing, lamination. Device and materials can then be fully characterized: the lab is equipped with AAA CW solar simulators, climatic chamber with solar simulator, LN2 electrical and optical testing, probe stations for testing up to 300°C, CW and ps lasers from UV to NIR, microRaman and MicroPL up to LN2, UV-VIS-NIR reflectivity, trasmissivity, and quantum efficiency, FTIR, SEM-FEG with EDX and EBIC, etc, with further equipment upgrading going on. Outdoor testing of PV cells and modules is done with full characterization of solar spectra, irradiation, albedo, etc., coupled with the device electrical testing.
The research activity of Lab_PV is focused on the field of terrestrial photovoltaics and photodetector technology, and it is organized into various distinct actions:

1. design, construction, and optimization of innovative solar cells, photovoltaic modules, electronics for power management;
2. study and implementation of new materials to achieve the aforementioned objectives on cells, modules, and electronics;
3. laboratory-level characterization of materials and devices for solar cells and photovoltaic modules;
4. outdoor characterization, in operating conditions, of solar cells, photovoltaic modules, and power management and sensing electronics.

Another major activity of the lab concerns the field of semiconductor photodetector technology, with focus on single photon avalanche detectors in particular for applications in biomedical photonics.