Screen Printed Thick-Film Metallization of Silicon Solar Cells - Recent Developments and Future Perspectives

Within this work, we present actual results in the field of screen printing front side metallization for Silicon solar cells using standard and knotless screen technology. We show that knotless screens have the potential to improve the printed finger geometry and reduce silver consumption. A fine line front side metallization for PERC (passivated emitter and rear) with a mean finger width of wf = 27 mm is realized using a fine line screen printing process at Fraunhofer ISE. The PERC solar cells obtain a mean conversion efficiency of = 21.6 %. Furthermore, we present actual results regarding rotary screen printed front side metallization - a highly promising approach to increase throughput significantly. Using this technology, PERC solar cells are metallized at a printing speed of v = 333 mm/s. A mean finger width wf = 47 mm and a mean finger height of hf = 13 mm is obtained.