High throughput printing for highly efficient cost-effective Si solar cells

One of the main challenges within Si solar cell production is the increase of throughput rates. With throughput rates in the range of 2400 Wafers / hour, metallization lines based on flatbed screen printing are typically the bottleneck of a modern solar cell production. Within this work we present innovative printing technologies allowing for higher throughput rates, e.g. rotational printing technologies as flexographic printing and rotational screen printing and as well multi-nozzle dispensing. In principle, flatbed screen printing processes can be completely replaced by using e.g. rotational screen printing for rear side printing and e.g. flexographic printing or dispensing for front side printing.. Hence, the realization of higher throughput rates and thus lower production costs is addressed. Moreover, new printing technologies allow for Ag paste savings up to 20% and efficiency increases of 1-2% relative by optimizing the finger geometry.