A commercially available silver paste was modified to match the flexographic process requirements. Rotational and oscillatory rheological tests were carried out to assess the printability and spreading behaviour of the resulting inks. Then, a multifactorial approach was used on a laboratory‐scale printing press to adapt the flexographic process for the front side metallisation of Cz‐Si solar cells, especially for the seed layer deposit of two layer contacts. To quickly identify the significant process parameters, a fractional design of experiment based on a screening approach at two levels was performed. Afterwards, two full factorial designs of experiments were implemented. While the first one allows a better understanding of the effect of the main factors and interactions, the second allows a fine tuning and a confirmation of the first results. Additionally, this methodology allows corroborating the influence of the ink rheological properties on the printing results. Following the process study and optimisation, a seed layer with an average width of 25 µm was printed at a high 0.3 m/s throughput. Additional results suggest that the line width and the throughput can be further improved, which underlines the potential of flexography for photovoltaic applications. Finally, the light‐induced process was used to thicken the seed layer after a standard firing‐through step, leading to an encouraging 17.9% efficiency on Cz‐Si solar cells. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Rheological experiments and a multifactorial approach were used to adapt the flexographic process for the front side metallization of Cz‐Si solar cells. A seed layer with an average width of 25 μm was printed at a high 0.3 m s −1 throughput; additional results suggest that the line width and the throughput can be further improved. The light‐induced process was used to thicken the printed seed layer, leading to an encouraging 17.9% efficiency on Cz‐Si solar cells.


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    Title :

    Study of the high throughput flexographic process for silicon solar cell metallisation



    Published in:

    Progress in photovoltaics ; 24 , 2 ; 240-252


    Publication date :

    2016




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    BKL:    53.36 Energiedirektumwandler, elektrische Energiespeicher





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