Alternative printing technologies

Pospischil, Maximilian; Lorenz, Andreas; Kühnhold-Pospischil, S.; Adrian, Adrian

doi:10.1049/pbpo174e_ch7

Cited by 3 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…This fluid phase is added to control the paste rheology and its stability in order ensure a sufficient structured paste deposition for any of the printing approaches used and researched in the field of solar cell metallization. This correlation of paste rheology and the printing process was focus of several research activities by Hoornstra et al, 306 Hsu et al, 307 Thibert et al, 308,309 Jewell et al, 273,310 Potts et al, 311 Pospischil et al, 312–315 Yüce et al, 277,316,317 Xu et al, 274,275 Tepner et al, 81 and couple others. Throughout this section, we are going to address the key findings and discuss their impact on the future of fine‐line metallization of silicon solar cells.…”

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Further, the corresponding Bingham number is highlighted, marking the point at which viscous stress starts to dominate and a static flow regime is established. Additionally, Herschel and Bulkley modeling of the experimental data for both pastes is shown 315 …”

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, he worked on generalizing the correlation between finger geometry and paste rheology by deriving a very interesting relationship of the Bingham Capillary number Ca y and the electrical aspect ratio AR el of the contact finger by the dispensing approach as presented in Figure 12 315 . The Bingham capillary number describes the ratio of yield stress to capillary pressure of a yield stress fluid as described in Equation ().…”

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dependency of the electrical aspect ratio AR el on the Bingham Capillary number Ca y for various combinations of paste and nozzle diameter on three different types of wafer textures 315 …”

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If and to what extend this effect may occur depends on various suspension parameters (e.g., particle size, shape, volume fraction, orientation, surface properties, and rheological properties of the vehicle) and wall related parameters such as surface roughness, surface energy, and electrostatic charges. On top of that, the macroscopic shear history of the entire suspension also influences the occurrence of wall slip phenomena 275,315,316,325,331–335 . How this phenomenon is affecting the screen and stencil printing process has been investigated by Durairaj et al, 336 who demonstrated that finger interruptions during printing processes can be reduced by the existence of slip.…”

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Printing technologies for silicon solar cell metallization: A comprehensive review

Tepner

Lorenz

2023

Progress in Photovoltaics

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This paper presents a comprehensive overview on printing technologies for metallization of solar cells. Throughout the last 30 years, flatbed screen printing has established itself as the predominant metallization process for the mass production of silicon solar cells. For this reason, we will provide a detailed review on its history, its evolution over time, and how the continuous efforts of the scientific and industrial community for further improvements revolutionized the entire PV industry. Furthermore, we will guide the reader through the physics on silicon solar cell metallization, the fundamentals on contact formation, and what type of challenges and requirements these topics create for printing technologies. The main topic of this review addresses the flatbed screen-printing process mechanics, its different process sequences, corresponding screen technology, and the very important impact of paste rheology on the printing result. Finally, we will compare alternative upcoming printing approaches to flatbed screen printing and discuss how they might solve upcoming challenges in metallization in terms of increasing the throughput rates at an everdecreasing grid line width and reduced silver consumption.

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Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dependency of the electrical aspect ratio AR el on the Bingham Capillary number Ca y for various combinations of paste and nozzle diameter on three different types of wafer textures 315 …”

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rheological Behavior Of Metal Pastesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Printing technologies for silicon solar cell metallization: A comprehensive review

Tepner

Lorenz

2023

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Paste Development for an Optimized Filament Stretching Effect during Parallel Dispensing on Transparent Conductive Oxide Layers for Solar Cell Metallization

Gensowski,

Palme,

Langhof

et al. 2023

Adv Eng Mater

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The availability of silver as an electrically conductive filler material in printing pastes for solar cell metallization is becoming a more crucial issue for multiterawatt‐scale production due to its global constraints. Therefore, the silver consumption for solar cell production needs to be reduced drastically by substituting silver with alternative conductive filler materials or utilizing process‐specific phenomena. The phenomenon of filament stretching during microextrusion allows significantly lower paste laydowns. The magnitude of filament stretching is paste‐dependent and therefore further knowledge of the pastes’ impact to the filament stretching is required. This study presents nine low‐temperature curing pastes differing in the particle system and binder resin. The rheological and thermal behavior of these suspensions are investigated and printing tests onto silicon heterojunction (SHJ) precursors are carried out. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)‐based microstructure analyses of printed electrodes are performed. Based on these experimental results, the impact of paste compositions regarding the paste behavior during microextrusion and the SHJ solar cell performances are analyzed. The developed paste formulations exhibit a strong filament stretching, leading to a reduced silver laydown of down to ΔmAg = −60%rel. and an absolute efficiency gain of up to Δη = +0.75%abs. due to less shading losses.

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Curing conditions for low‐resistivity contacts on transparent conductive oxide layers for different solar cell applications

Gensowski,

Freund,

Much

et al. 2023

Progress in Photovoltaics

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The Cu (ln1‐xGax)Se2 (CIGS) solar cell technology is a potentially high‐efficient approach with unique properties compared with silicon photovoltaic, like flexible lightweight substrates and different colored designs. So far, the full potential of the transparent conductive oxide layers has not been exploited yet as no front contacts are applied, resulting in significant losses from the cell‐to‐module level. In this study, Ag front contacts are applied by parallel dispensing onto indium tin oxide layers of silicon heterojunction substrates and CIGS substrates. Subsequently, a thermally curing process is carried out to form the conductive contacts. The curing conditions are varied between 200°C ≥ Tc ≥ 100°C combined with 20 min ≥ tc ≥ 1.5 min. The study aims to determine the curing parameters enabling low‐resistivity contacts by using low‐temperature curing Ag paste and ultralow‐temperature curing Ag paste. The lateral electrode resistance and the contact resistivity of printed electrodes are measured. The results of simultaneous thermogravimetry‐differential scanning calorimetry (pastes) and microstructure analysis of printed electrodes are used to explain the electrical parameters of the printed electrodes. In general, higher curing temperatures and longer curing durations encourage the sintering and densification process of the applied electrodes resulting in low‐resistivity contacts. Contact resistivities below ρc,TLM < 5 mΩ·cm2 and lateral electrode resistance of Rlateral ≥ 17 Ω m−1 are obtained for different paste systems. However, optimal curing conditions of low‐temperature curing pastes can cause thermal damage to the CIGS device. Therefore, ultralow‐temperature curing pastes seem to be promising candidates for front contact metallization of CIGS substrates.

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Alternative printing technologies

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Printing technologies for silicon solar cell metallization: A comprehensive review

Printing technologies for silicon solar cell metallization: A comprehensive review

Paste Development for an Optimized Filament Stretching Effect during Parallel Dispensing on Transparent Conductive Oxide Layers for Solar Cell Metallization

Curing conditions for low‐resistivity contacts on transparent conductive oxide layers for different solar cell applications

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