HighLine Technology GmbH, a spin-off of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy System ISE, claimed that it has developed a new dispensing technology, which enhances the electricity yield of silicon solar cells. The company has plans to commercialize this technology.

This technology involves a contactless dispensing process to apply front metal contacts onto solar cells. This process saves resources and increases the electricity yield and the potential for cost reductions, noted the research paper.

According to the researchers, the new technology can be integrated into the conventional manufacturing process of silicon solar cells, replacing the screen printing process used for the front-side metal contacts. The usage of new dispensing technology can also reduce the consumption of expensive silver by about 20%. It produces thinner front side contacts of solar cells, allowing sunlight on a larger semiconductor surface. This enhances the power output and efficiency by around 1%.

The researchers stated that contactless dispensing could also reduce the reject rate while using thinner silicon wafers and significantly enhance the output compared to the existing screen printing process.

“Our main focus is currently on reducing material consumption in the photovoltaic industry. Besides the photovoltaic industry, our dispensing technology is attractive for other industrial production processes,” said Maximilian Pospischil, Managing Director and one of the founders of HighLine Technology.

According to HighLine Technology, the company received funding from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy BMWi through the EXIST Transfer of Research program. Fraunhofer Technologie Transfer Fonds GmbH also financed the company, it added.

In August 2020, Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE announced a new record efficiency of 25.9% for the III-V/Si tandem solar cell grown directly on silicon.

Mercom earlier reported that researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology (Fraunhofer IISB) had identified how impurities were formed in silicon crystals during their manufacturing process. The researchers discovered that the crucible and coating systems are the biggest sources of metallic impurities in silicon crystals through various targeted experiments.

Image credit: Fieldsken Ken Fields / CC BY-SA