Applied Materials sees strong demand for Esatto double print technology for solar cells
PC's Solar Photovoltaics Blog
Applied Materials Inc. announced at the SNEC 2010 PV Power Expo that its Esatto Technology is expected to be used in more than 2 gigawatts ofannual cell manufacturing capacity in the next few months at customersites in China, Taiwan and Europe.
Customers have demonstrated0.46 percent absolute cell efficiency gains with Esatto Technology, andup to a 14 percent reduction in consumption of silver printing paste.This combination of higher efficiency and reduced material expense isprojected to lower manufacturing cost by over 3 cents-per-watt anddeliver a return on investment in as little as eight months.
Esatto Technology is a high precision, multi-step printing capability forApplied’s market-leading Baccini back-end solar cell processing systems. This production-proven screen printing technology is used to fabricateadvanced contact structures in crystalline silicon (c-Si) solarphotovoltaic (PV) cells.
“Our Esatto Technology demonstratesApplied’s unmatched ability to overcome the challenges in integratingnew cell technologies and to provide easy-to-implement, cost-effectivesolutions to our customers,” said Davide Spotti, vice president andgeneral manager of Applied’s Baccini Cell Systems division. “We’reseeing an enthusiastic response from cell makers because they can drivetheir efficiency roadmaps using their existing production equipment andprocess flows.”
Key to Applied’s Esatto Technology is itsproprietary illumination and pattern recognition system which providesthe critical accuracy and repeatability to enable precise alignmentbetween multiple screen-printed layers. In a study at Germany’sprestigious Fraunhofer Institute, Esatto Technology for double-printedfront contacts enabled significant out-of-the-box improvements inabsolute cell efficiency and printing paste consumption.
Applied’s Esatto Technology also offers cell manufacturers a simple path toupgrade their Baccini lines to implement selective emitter structures,which are low-resistivity regions beneath the contacts. By creatingthese structures, customers can harvest more of the light spectrum andboost cell efficiency even further.
