Efficient Transmitter Research Articles

Quality by design engineered, enhanced anticancer activity of temozolomide and resveratrol coloaded NLC and brain targeting via lactoferrin conjugation in treatment of glioblastoma

The most dangerous type of high-grade astrocytoma is glioblastoma multiforme. The objective of the work was to engineer lactoferrin conjugated temozolomide and resveratrol co-loaded NLC for the treatment of glioblastoma using intranasal delivery for brain targeting. Synergistic activity of temozolomide and resveratrol was determined using combination index method and 1:1 ratio was selected. QbD approach was used to formulate and optimize NLC, with minimum particle size, maximum transmittance and entrapment efficiency using Central Composite Rotable Design (CCRD) method. The optimized LTR-NLC had desired average particle size (209.3 nm), narrow PDI along, high percentage transmittance (>95%) and better entrapment efficiency (95.26% of TEM and 87.59% of RES). From ex-vivo permeation studies it was found that the permeation at 24 h was 77.43 %, and 88.55 % from LTR-NLC and 25.76 % and 31.10% from suspension for resveratrol and temozolomide respectively. In comparison to drug suspension, NLC had nearly 3-fold increase in drug penetration. IC50 value was also significantly better in the groups treated with LTR-NLC. Hence it can be concluded that LTR-NLC may be an effective formulation for the treatment of glioblastoma, according to the findings of this investigation.

Microheater-Integrated Microlens Array for Robust Rapid Fog Removal.

In extreme environments, fog formation on a microlens array (MLA) surface results in a device failure. One reliable solution for fog removal is to heat the surface using a microheater. However, due to the surface interference, the combination of these two microdevices remains elusive. In this study, we introduce lift-off and electroless plating into femtosecond laser processing to fabricate a microheater integrated MLA (μH-MLA) on the same substrate with high light transmittance, durability, and fog removal efficiency. Laser-induced micro-nano grooves enable the microheater to be tightly coupled with the MLA and have high heating performance, thus maintaining a stable performance for over 24 h during continuous operation as well as under long time ultrasonic vibration and mechanical friction. With a rapid response time (τ0.5) of 17 s and a high working temperature of 188 °C, the μH-MLA removed fog that covers the entire face within 14 s. Finally, we prove the use of this fabrication method in large areas and curved surface environments. This study provides a flexible, stable, and economical method to integrate micro-optical and microelectrical devices.

A Review of the Improvements in the Performance and Stability of Ternary Semi-Transparent Organic Solar Cells: Material and Architectural Approaches

In the past decade, considerable efforts have been made to develop semi-transparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs). Different materials and architectures were examined with the aim of commercializing these devices. Among these, the use of ternary active layers demonstrated great promise for the development of efficient semi-transparent organic solar cells with the potential for future applications, including but not limited to self-powered greenhouses and powered windows. Researchers seek alternative solutions to trade-off between the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and average visible transmittance (AVT) of ST-OSCs, with photoactive materials being the key parameters that govern both (PCE) and (AVT), as well as device stability. Several new organic materials, including polymers and small molecules, were synthesized and used in conjunction with a variety of techniques to achieve semi-transparent conditions. In this review paper, we look at the working principle and key parameters of semi-transparent organic solar cells, as well as the methods that have been used to improve the performance and stability of ternary-based semi-transparent organic solar cells. The main approaches were concluded to be spectral enhancement and increments in the transparency of the active layer through band gap tuning, utilizing novel organic semi-conductors, optical engineering, and the design architecture of the active layers.

Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells with Superior Thermal/Light Stability and Balanced Efficiency and Transmittance

Semitransparent organic solar cells show attractive potential in the application of building‐integrated photovoltaics, agrivoltaics, floating photovoltaics, and wearable electronics, as their multiple functionalities of electric power generation, photopermeability, and color tunability. Design and exploration of semitransparent organic solar cells with optimal and balanced efficiency and average visible light transmittance and simultaneously high stability are in great demand. In this work, based on a layer‐by‐layer‐processed active layer and an ultrathin metal electrode, inverted semitransparent organic solar cells (ITO/AZO/PM6/BTP‐eC9/MoO3/Au/Ag) were fabricated. Optimal and balanced efficiency and average visible light transmittance were demonstrated, and simultaneously promising thermal and light stability were achieved for the obtained devices. The power conversion efficiency of 13.78–12.29% and corresponding average visible light transmittance of 14.58–25.80% were recorded for the ST‐OSC devices with 25–15 nm thick Ag electrodes, respectively. Superior thermal and light stability with ~90% and ~85% of initial efficiency retained in 400 h under 85 °C thermal stress and AM1.5 solar illumination were demonstrated, respectively.

High‐Throughput Computing Guided Low/High Index Optical Coupling Layer for Record‐Performance Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells

AbstractSemitransparent organic solar cells (ST‐OSCs) can be made in different colors, allowing light to pass through, and yet absorb enough visible and near‐infrared (NIR) light to generate electricity. However, it remains a challenge to achieve high performing ST‐OSCs over the two competing indexes of power conversion efficiency (PCE) and average visible transmittance (AVT). This work reports an effort to develop record‐performance ST‐OSCs using a low/high index optical coupling layer (OCL) and a 2D photonic‐structured antireflective (AR) coating. High‐throughput optical screening is used to improve the understanding of OCL structure−performance relationships and the predicting of NIR absorption enhancement for ST‐OSCs. The concurrent use of a low/high index Na3AlF6 (170 nm)/ZnS (110 nm) OCL, identified among about 200 thousand simulated device configurations and a 900 nm pitch‐sized 2D photonic‐structured AR coating, fabricated using nanoimprint lithography, enables the record‐performance ternary PM6:BTP‐eC9:L8‐BO‐based ST‐OSCs, achieving simultaneously a record‐high PCE of 15.2%, a high AVT of 32%, an impressive light utilization efficiency of 4.86%, and a favorable color‐rendering index of 82. The results of the ST‐OSCs demonstrated in this work provide an attractive option for a plethora of applications in self‐powered greenhouses and building‐integrated photovoltaic systems.

Molecular design of cost-effective donor polymers with high visible transmission for eco-friendly and efficient semitransparent organic solar cells

Photoactive layer materials that overcome the trade-off between power conversion efficiency (PCE) and average visible transmittance (AVT) are required to prepare successful high-performance semitransparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs). Among 12 novel cost-effective D–π=A polymers with high visible light transmission, P(3IN = 0.3)(3IN2F = 0.5)(BDD = 0.2) achieved a PCE of 14.0% and high stability in an eco-friendly solvent-processed OSC with BTP-eC9. This blend film exhibited an AVT of 62.1% and a color rendering index of 95.0, demonstrating the high potential for ST-OSCs. The ternary OSC with PM6 greatly enhances the PCE to 17.3%. Binary and ternary ST-OSCs achieve light utilization efficiencies (LUEs) of 4.38% and 4.04%, respectively, demonstrating the potential of the D–π=A structure. Under a 3000 K light-emitting diode light at 958 lx low illuminance, PCEs of 12.4% and 15.7% are obtained for binary and ternary ST-OSCs, respectively, and the indoor LUEs (LUIEs) of ST-OSCs are greatly enhanced to 5.52% and 5.48%, respectively. Air-processed eco-friendly ternary ST-OSC module (4.7 cm2) achieves not only a PCE of 12.1% and LUIE of 3.90% under 958 lx, but also color coordinates of (0.290, 0.323) and an infrared radiation rejection rate of 87.5%, meeting the civil engineering specifications for windows. This ST-OSC module can be a substitute power source of the thermo-hygrometer in real time, even operate at 195 lx, which paved the way towards zero-energy indoor and outdoor electrical devices as well as windows for buildings and vehicles.

8.0-pJ/bit BPSK Transmitter With LO Phase Steering and 52-Gbps Data Rate Operating at 246 GHz

This work investigates a broadband binary phase shift keying (BPSK) transmitter system with a measured data rate of 52 Gb/s and 8.0-pJ/bit transmitter efficiency. The transmitter features local oscillator (LO) multiplication, 360 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{\circ}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> LO phase steering for phased array applications, a power-efficient BPSK modulator, and a very compact power amplifier (PA) connected to a differential bond wire interface. By employing a low-order modulation scheme, the baseband (BB) chain can be implemented at a very low complexity, which benefits power consumption. Proving the concept, an integrated circuit (IC) is fabricated in a 130-nm silicon–germanium (SiGe) bipolar complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology with a ft/fmax of 350/450 GHz, covering 1.158 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . At 52 Gb/s, this circuit shows the highest reported data rate using BPSK modulation. The saturated output power of 3.5 dBm, while consuming 414 mW of direct-current (dc) power, results in a radio-frequency (RF) efficiency of 0.54%, which is a 28% improvement versus the state of the art. The high achieved data rate combined with circuit modules optimized for low power consumption results in a measured transmitter efficiency of 8.0 pJ/bit, improving the state of the art of complete transmitter systems in the same frequency band by 68% and 46% compared to BPSK and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) systems, respectively.

A New Miniaturized Acoustic Transmitter for Marine Animal Tracking

Most marine renewable energy (MRE) technologies are still in their infancy. Many uncertainties remain regarding MRE systems’ impacts on the marine environment and species where they are deployed, which is one of the major hurdles for these systems to be widely adopted at a commercial scale. Currently, the primary technologies to monitor marine animals’ behavior around existing or potential MRE deployment sites are optical and acoustic imaging. However, these methods cannot identify individual animals and thus are less useful in identifying protected species and studying their behavior. Implantable acoustic transmitters with unique identification codes could serve as a complementary technology. To minimize potential bias introduced to the study results, the implanted transmitters must be sufficiently small and light to not affect the animals’ behavior while still having acceptable signal strengths and service life. Recently, we developed a new miniaturized acoustic transmitter that offers a significantly improved signal strength and service life (140 days [projected value] at a 5-s transmission interval) in a smaller and lighter package (0.45 g in the air), compared to the existing technologies. The detection range and detection efficiency of the new transmitter were tested in an actual marine environment and demonstrated a detection range of up to 330 m, a 65% improvement over the existing commercial counterparts operating at similar frequencies. Here, we report the design principles, performance, and manufacturing procedure of the transmitter. Theoretical estimates of the detection range, the actual range, and detection efficiency results from the field testing are presented.

Next-Generation URLLC With Massive Devices: A Unified Semi-Blind Detection Framework for Sourced and Unsourced Random Access

This paper proposes a unified semi-blind detection framework for sourced and unsourced random access (RA), which enables next-generation ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) with a massive number of devices. Specifically, the active devices transmit their uplink access signals in a grant-free manner to realize ultra-low access latency. Meanwhile, the base station aims to achieve ultra-reliable data detection under severe inter-device interference without exploiting explicit channel state information (CSI). We first propose an efficient transmitter design, where a small amount of reference information (RI) is embedded in the access signal to resolve the inherent ambiguities incurred by the unknown CSI. At the receiver, we further develop a successive interference cancellation-based semi-blind detection scheme, where a bilinear generalized approximate message passing algorithm is utilized for joint channel and signal estimation (JCSE), while the embedded RI is exploited for ambiguity elimination. Particularly, a rank selection approach and a RI-aided initialization strategy are incorporated to reduce the algorithmic computational complexity and to enhance the JCSE reliability, respectively. Besides, four enabling techniques are integrated to satisfy the stringent latency and reliability requirements of massive URLLC. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed semi-blind detection framework offers a better scalability-latency-reliability tradeoff than the state-of-the-art detection schemes dedicated to sourced or unsourced RA.

Longitudinal Through-Hole Architecture for Efficient and Thickness-Insensitive Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells.

Semi-transparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) have great potential for application in vehicle- or building-integrated solar energy harvesting. Ultrathin active layers and electrodes are typically utilized to guarantee high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and high average visible transmittance (AVT)simultaneously; however, such ultrathin parts are unsuitable for industrial high-throughput manufacturing. In this study, ST-OSCs are fabricated using a longitudinal through-hole architecture to achieve functional region division and to eliminate the dependence on ultrathin films. A complete circuit that vertically corresponds to the silver grid is responsible for obtaining high PCE, and the longitudinal through-holes embedded in it allow most of the light to pass through,where the overall transparency is associated with the through-hole specification rather than the thicknesses of active layer and electrode. Excellent photovoltaic performance over a wide range of transparency (9.80-60.03%), with PCEs ranging from 6.04% to 15.34% is achieved. More critically, this architecture allows printable 300-nm-thick devices to achieve a record-breaking light utilization efficiency (LUE) of 3.25%, and enables flexible ST-OSCs to exhibit better flexural endurance by dispersing the extrusion stress into the through-holes. This study paves the way for fabricating high-performance ST-OSCs and shows great promise for the commercialization of organic photovoltaics.

Real-time energy-efficient software and hardware implementations of a QCSP communication system

In the Internet of Things, the energy efficiency of communications is crucial. Thus, using data-less preambles to detect frames is suboptimal. A preamble-less physical layer named “Quasi-Cyclic Short Packet (QCSP)” proposed a solution. However, the high computational complexity of the receiver makes the implementation challenging. This paper studies the feasibility and efficiency of real-time software and hardware QCSP systems. Several highly efficient transmitter implementations are presented, demonstrating the relevance of the approach. The parallelization and optimization strategies are elaborated for both software and hardware receiver implementations. They allowed software implementations with throughputs above 50 kb/s (maximum for the LoRa standard), consuming as low as 27 μJ/b. Thanks to detailed algorithm refinements, the throughtput even exceeded 250 kb/s on FPGA using High-Level Synthesis methodology, for an estimated consumption of 3.9 μJ/b. The results support the viability of the QCSP approach for cloud-RAN and edge computing in Low-Power Wide-Area Networks.

MIMO waveforms design with good correlation properties under bound constraints

We develop a new fast and efficient algorithm for designing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) waveforms with low auto- and cross-correlation sidelobes. Unlike the existing methods that consider unimodular signals, we design both signal amplitudes and phases to minimize the weighted integrated sidelobe level (WISL) of signals. Bound constraints on signal amplitudes are forced into the optimization to balance the transmitter efficiency and the degrees of optimization freedom, which also can provide a feasible set that facilitates efficient optimization. The amplitude-bounded signals design problem is formulated as a quartic optimization problem with bound constraints and equality (constant energy) constraints. We propose a novel algorithm based on the limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno with bound constraints (L-BFGS-B) method to solve the resultant problem. An algorithmic enhancement via nonlinear conjugate gradient (NCG) method is also developed to improve the proposed method. In addition, we derive the gradients of the cost function with respect to (w.r.t.) the signal amplitudes and phases and calculate them with the help of fast Fourier transformation (FFT), which makes the proposed method very computationally efficient. Numerical simulations illustrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in both optimization performance and computational efficiency.

Fabrication, structural, thermo-mechanical and opto-electrical behavior of anthranilamide compound

Anthranilamide (AAM) compound were fabricated via an alcoholic solvent assisted slow evaporation at room temperature for investigating the multi functional device applications. The solubility test was performed with different concentrations of AAM salt dispersed in 100 mL ethanol solvent to understand the crystallization process of fabricated material. The cell parameters, and diffraction peaks of the title compound were collected through nondestructive tool like single crystal XRD and powder XRD studies, and thus results showed the monoclinic structure. The fabricated material’s functional group, thermal stability, and hardness behavior were tested by various tool viz FT-IR, TG-DTA, and Vickers hardness analysis. With the aid of UV–vis–NIR spectrum, and frequency conversion test technique, optical transmittance and double harmonic generation efficiency values are detected to be 92% and 4.1 mV. Using electrical studies, the dielectric parameters and specific conductance of the title compound values are varied by applying a low frequency to a high frequency region at different temperatures (313, 323, and 333 K).

An improved FSK-modulated class-E power and data transmitter for biomedical implants

This paper presents an efficient dual-resonance biomedical inductive link for frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation. In this link, the combination of PCB coil as the main coil and the solenoid as the compact inductance creates a dual-resonance coil. 3.22 mm of winding diameter in solenoid makes the link suitable for biomedical implants. Using the dual-resonance link, an efficient FSK-modulated power and data transmitter is proposed for biomedical implants to transmit power and data simultaneously with the same carriers and a single inductive link. So, there is no concern about the interference between power and data carriers. Also, the presence of two resonance frequencies at the secondary side of the link significantly improves the efficiency. With a 6 mm air gap and 2.5 Mbps data rate (DR), the measured power delivered to load (PDL) and power transmission efficiency (PTE) are 57.4 mW and 48.4%, respectively. Also, with a 6 mm interface of beef ribs + medical-grade silicone, the measured PDL and PTE are 48.2 mW and 38.8%, respectively. The measured bit error rate (BER) for 2.5 Mbps data rate is less than 10-5.

A general objective-orientated automatic optimization of multi-layer thermochromic smart glazes

VO2-based thermochromic smart glazes have attracted much attention for energy-saving buildings. Their practical applications need high visible luminous transmittance (Tlum) and high solar light modulation efficiency (ΔTsol). High Tlum and ΔTsol are difficult to be realized by a single-layer VO2 film, and constructing multi-layer film assemblies has been a widely adopted way to increase Tlum and ΔTsol. Tlum and ΔTsol of a multi-layer film assembly are multi-dimensional functions of the complex dielectric permittivity and the thickness of each layer, respectively. The current research reported a computer automatic searching of the total minimum of an evaluation function that together takes the cool-state Tlum, hot-state Tlum, and ΔTsol into account. It can be used to optimize a multi-layer assembly composed of any components according to the given objectives and weights for Tlum and ΔTsol. Different multi-layer film systems consisting of SiO2, TiO2, and VO2 layers were optimized. The best film system was proposed to be TiO2/VO2/TiO2/s, and the effects of objectives and weights on Tlum and ΔTsol were also checked. The physical reason that leads to high Tlum and ΔTsol was analyzed based on the optimized reflectance and transmittance spectra. The RGB tristimulus of the optimized multi-layer system can also be obtained from the transmittance spectra. The program can also realize an automatic optimization with some variables being constrained, and the composite layers are also involved under the basis of the Bruggeman effective media theory. The results showed that a satisfied objective-orientated optimization can be realized for a thermochromic layer system; this should be meaningful for the design and preparation of the multi-layer film assemblies according to the different user's demands.

Cellulose-based phase change membranes with reversible optical transmittance and lignin ester-enhancing photothermal conversion performance

Leakage issues and low photothermal conversion efficiencies have limited the application of organic solid–liquid phase-change materials. Herein, cellulose-based phase-change membranes (CPCM-FAS-LUEX) were prepared by physically blending three fatty alcohols (1-dodecanol, 1-tetradecanol, and 1-hexadecanol) with a cross-linked network composed of cellulose 10-undecenoyl ester (CUE), lignin 10-undecenoyl ester (LUE), and octadecyl acrylate (OA) with 2,2′-azobis(2-methylpropionitrile) as an initiator. In addition to being part of the network structure, LUE acted as a photothermal conversion enhancer. During phase change processes, the prepared membranes exhibited reversible optical transmittance, the response temperature of which could be adjusted (21–49 °C) by using different fatty alcohols. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed that the CPCM-FAS-LUEX membranes possessed good thermal energy storage capacities, with melting enthalpies up to 134.9 J/g. The introduction of LUE significantly improved the photothermal conversion performance, with an increase in efficiency from 42.06% to 88.66% at a light intensity of 230 mW/cm2. It is noteworthy that reversible optical transmittance and high photothermal conversion efficiency were achieved in the same materials. Hence, the synthesized CPCM-FAS-LUEX membranes have potential for use in thermal–response materials and solar–thermal storage and conversion systems.

Ultra-broadband achromatic metalens with high performance for the entire visible and near-infrared spectrum

Metalenses provide unprecedented opportunities to overcome the limitations of conventional refractive lenses, which have been extensively studied to achieve achromatic focusing and imaging in various wavebands. However, it is a challenging task to create a metalens that can achieve achromatic focusing with high efficiency for a broad bandwidth covering the entire visible and near-infrared spectrum. Here, we present a design to overcome the difficulty by employing two types of silicon nitride pillars with different cross sections as optical phase shifters. Numerical results demonstrate diffraction-limited achromatic focusing for the ultra-broad bandwidth from 400 to 1120 nm. All the focal spots at different wavelengths are almost in the same position. The maximum focal shift from the metalens focal length over the ultra-broad waveband is less than 3 %. And the average transmittance and focusing efficiency are 90.2 % and 77.7 %, respectively. These results indicate significant improvement over the previously reported achromatic metalenses in terms of focal-shift suppression and wideband operation with high efficiency. The research provides a means to develop a high-quality achromatic metalens for the entire visible and near-infrared spectrum.

Dual Photonic Structures Enable High‐Performance Semitransparent Organic Photovoltaics with Enhanced Light Utilization

Semitransparent organic photovoltaics (ST‐OPVs) offer promising prospects for self‐powered greenhouses and building‐integrated photovoltaic systems. However, a remaining critical challenge is to balance the two competing indexes of power conversion efficiency (PCE) and average visible transmittance (AVT). Herein, a synergetic strategy of light manipulation is developed to achieve high‐performance ST‐OPVs by employing dual photonic structures with a rear single‐layer optical coupling layer (OCL) and a front single‐layer antireflection coating (ARC). The material selection and thickness optimization of both OCL and ARC are systematically guided by combining theoretical simulations and experimental devices, leading to significantly enhanced light utilization in ST‐OPVs. As a result, the use of dual photonic structures enables ST‐OPVs based on the active layer of PM6:Y6 to demonstrate simultaneously a high AVT of 35.7% and a good PCE of 10.29%, yielding an excellent light utilization efficiency of 3.67% with a remarkable improvement of 43% comparing with that of the control device. This work provides a simple yet effective strategy of light manipulation for the development of high‐performance ST‐OPVs.

Computational and experimental investigation on piperazinediium bis (4-aminobenzoate) dihydrate single crystal for NLO applications

Piperazinediium bis (4-aminobenzoate) dihydrate (P4AB) single crystal was grown successfully through slow evaporation. Several characterizations of the P4AB crystal were performed to understand its optical, dielectric, thermal, NLO, and structural properties. The structural information of the P4AB crystal was evaluated using single crystal x-ray diffraction (SXRD); P4AB material is an orthorhombic system with a centrosymmetric space group P21/c. The UV–vis–NIR study showed that the P4AB crystal had a large transmission window and exhibited a near-UV cut-off wavelength of 327 nm. The functional groups and their respective band assignments were revealed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. Thermal stability was ascertained through thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA). The ions of the incorporated acid compound significantly improved the dielectric, mechanical, and optical properties; they also improved the activation energy and conductivity of the P4AB crystal. In addition, they improved the energy band gap, optical transmittance, and second and third-order nonlinear optical efficiency. The open aperture z-scan technique was employed to investigate the sample's NLO absorption at 532 nm. Quantum chemical calculations were performed with B3LYP/6–311++G (d,p) level of basis set. The optimized geometry, HOMO-LUMO values, and first-order hyperpolarizability were assessed.

Current performance and future development paths of transparent PV glazing in a multi-domain perspective

Transparent PV (TPV) layers allow solar energy exploitation across the thermal, daylighting, and energy conversion domains. However, the current power conversion efficiency (PCE) and visible transmittance (VT) features of such systems may hinder the effectiveness of such solutions when the global performance of the building envelope is considered. In this study we assessed, from a multi-domain perspective, if the performance of façade configurations based on commercially available TPV layers can compete with the performance of façade configurations based on more conventional (opaque) PV solutions. The outcome of this research is thus, on the one hand, a better, evidence-based understanding of the current performance levels of this technology – whether it is mature enough for successful uptake, and which applications are the most relevant – and on the other hand, evidence-based recommendations for product development paths to make TPV systems more competitive for a wider range of applications. In this simulation study we employed a simple room with standardised user patterns and requirements, and repeated the analysis in multiple European climates, to make our results as generic as possible. We carried out the analysis by computing and comparing the performance across the three different domains (total energy use, daylighting, and energy conversion), thanks to a co-simulation environment, of south-facing façade configurations with different TPV or opaque BIPV solutions, which were parametrically changed in terms of window-to-wall ratio, glazing type, and BIPV system. The results showed that TPV systems provided global performance levels that were, in a large range of cases, worse than those of other façade configurations integrating only opaque PV layers and conventional glazing. The trade-off between solar/visual transmittance and absorptance, necessary to ensure a certain PV conversion output in TPV layers, led to a worse global (multi-domain) performance in all the investigated climates. When a fully glazed façade is an absolute design requirement, TPV-based façades can give a better total energy performance than solutions without any PV conversion feature, while providing acceptable daylighting exploitation. However, these envelope solutions showed a worse performance compared to other configurations with a better, more balanced window-to-wall ratio, with BIPV only on opaque surfaces. Accordingly, these findings have implications for both recommended applications of today’s TPV systems and technology development directions. Current TPV systems may be suitable for large, glazed surfaces (such as atria or roofs above circulation spaces) where visual performance requirements are less tight than in office or dwelling settings. TPV solutions can become more competitive for broader façade applications if a PCE of at least 3 times the current value is achieved without reducing the VT. Increasing the VT while keeping the current PCE could also be a suitable research trajectory to enable TPV systems that provide a better balance in solar energy exploitation. Combining a TPV with more advanced glazing solutions (e.g., vacuum insulation or thin-glass glazing) can, however, only marginally expand the range of usability of these systems.