Short Drying Processes for Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract

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.