Dracula Technologies inaugurated its organic photovoltaic (OPV) module production line in Valence on September 12. With around 40 employees, seven patents filed, its first commercial contract and ambitious development projects, the company applies the “lab to fab” principle: an initial development stage based on laboratory research, followed by investment in industrial equipment to put the innovation into production.
What's special about Dracula Technologies' modules? They are sensitive to natural and artificial light, and operate indoors using any light source. Dracula's modules could be best used as battery replacements in remote controls, small industrial connected objects, sensors or even to power electronic chips in industrial or logistics centers.
The Green Micro Power Factory now has a production capacity of 150 million square centimeters of active surface area of organic photovoltaic modules. Production is based on inkjet printing technology developed by Dracula over 12 years of research. Because they are printed, the modules can take any shape without incurring extra production costs and can be adapted to meet power requirements.
OPV: Finding the right technological and industrial formula
The principle of OPV technology is based on the association of a semiconducting polymer (donor) with an organic material (acceptor), which together form the active layer. The active layer absorbs the light and then converts it into energy by creating bonded electron-hole pairs (excitons) that move until they reach a donor/acceptor (D/A) interface, where charge separation takes place. The separated charge carriers move through this active layer until they pass through the photo-active layer, the interfacial layers and then the electrodes to reach the external circuit.
Dracula Technologies uses the concept of volume heterojunction, where the active layer consists of a heterogeneous mixture of donor and acceptor, enabling a very wide D/A interface to be established. It is on the composition and nano-morphology of the mixture of active layers (the inks) that the company marks its added value and its industrial secret. But that's not all: “We are also working on the compatibility between the layers,” explains Sadok Ben Dkhil, the company's chief technology officer.
In the OPV Layer technology developed by the company, each of the four layers is printed in such a way as to optimize the transport of charges both in the materials and in the final module. At the Valence plant, the clean room allows engineers and technicians to produce these different layers that become, in a way, the “inks” used for production via inkjet printing.
The production tool consists of an integrated electronics printing ecosystem. Much of the equipment was purchased from its former partner in OPV, Asca, which had ceased production shortly before its takeover by Germany's Hering.
At the Dracula plant, modules validated in the R&D laboratory are transferred to the pilot line for optimization. They then go into automated production: The substrate cassettes containing the module design are placed on the automated island where they are handled by the robot, which successively places them on the printing machines to receive the corresponding layer of ink. The active layer needs time to stabilize, and each print must be followed by a rest period to allow the solvent residues to evaporate. The printheads are fitted with nozzles a few micrometres in diameter that enable ink droplets to be projected uniformly, creating precise patterns. The maintenance of these sensitive tools is at the heart of the company's industrial system.
Nanoelectronics means (ideally) zero defects, and that's also the case outside the printing machine. “Automation allows us to avoid handling faults. They are sometimes imperceptible to the naked eye during production, but on our scale of work they can have a major influence on the aesthetic and technical result of the final module,” explains Dracula Technologies CEO Brice Cruchon. “Our aim is to automate all stages of the production line by the end of 2026 by incorporating innovations into our current process.”
Another objective for the young plant is to quadruple its production capacity to 600 million square centimeters of modules by 2026. To achieve this, Dracula plans to increase the number of shifts, either with several shifts (morning and evening, or even three shifts during peak production periods) or by opening up production at weekends. It also intends to open new production lines. And there's no shortage of space. The company has moved into 2500 square meters of industrial premises. Even the old greenhouses in the surrounding area can be converted into new clean rooms for further production development.
Finding the right market: Replacing batteries, but not just batteries
Dracula Technologies' OPV modules have natural applications in everyday battery-operated items such as remote controls and smoke detectors. With an output of 61 to 72 µW for 100 lux (a low level of general indoor lighting), the devices are capable of replacing batteries. This market is made all the more accessible by the fact that the company is developing a flexible film storage device using a layer technology directly integrated into the module by inkjet printing. Called LAYER®Vault, the technology can supply energy to a device even when it has not been exposed to light (complete darkness) for a short period — a few hours, one night.
Dracula has now signed its first contract with COOLR for autonomous camera applications in fridge stock management. “We're talking about several hundred thousand items a year over the next few years,” says Cruchon.
Other applications are envisaged for the digital price tag market in the retail sector, for product-integrated logistics tracking tags for stock management, for example, or for geolocation devices for livestock, or even in smart cards/chips (metro, ID cards, etc.) which could become receptive rather than just transmitters.
The inauguration of the Green Micro Power Factory brought together a number of potential customers. Interest has been expressed in other sectors, but it is too early to say. Dracula Technologies currently has 40 employees. By 2026, it aims to have sales of €40 million and be recruiting around a hundred people, including cleanroom operators for production, process and quality engineers and people dedicated to business development.
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