We studied the change of photovoltaic properties of a flexible CuInxGa(1-x)Se2 (CIGS) solar cell fabricated on polyimide by mechanical bending with curvature radii of 75 mm (75R) and 20 mm (20R). The flexible CIGS cells were flattened on a PET film, then placed and forced against the surface of a curved block fabricated with pre-designed curvatures. Both up (compressive) and down (tensile) bending were applied to a specimen of CIGS on PET with curvatures of 75R and 20R for 10,000 times and 2,000 times, respectively. From J-V measurements, we found that the conversion efficiency (Eff.) was reduced by 3% and 4% for up-and down-bending, respectively, at curvature 75R; it was greatly reduced by 15% for curvature 20R in the up-bending. However, the open circuit voltage (Voc) and short-circuit current density (Jsc) seemed to change little, within 3%, for the applied mechanical stresses. The degradation in Eff. resulted from the deterioration of the series (Rs) and shunt (Rsh) resistances of the solar cell.
