Short Drying Processes for Silicon Solar Cells

Herein, very short drying processes for the screen-printed electrodes of passivated emitter and rear solar cells (PERC) are successfully demonstrated. The short drying processes are conducted in an in-line heating system with vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) as its heat source, being a compact alternative to the conventional heating chamber. While the heating time of the conventional industrial drying process is believed to be about 20 s (to the best of the authors’ knowledge), the VCSEL system allows a significant reduction down to 0.15 s while maintaining a similar power conversion efficiency and contact adhesion quality.