Distortion of knotless printing screens in solar cell mass-production

IF 6.3 2区材料科学 Q2 ENERGY & FUELS

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells Pub Date : 2025-08-15 DOI:10.1016/j.solmat.2025.113894

Mertcan Comak , Jan Lossen , Nagesh Chikkaiah , Shamil Ollakkan , Mohanraj Chandran , Lejo Joseph Koduvelikulathu

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Abstract

Advanced solar cell technologies may need precision print-on-print or alignment-specific metallization to improve energy efficiency and quality. This study examines knotless printing screens in two tests to determine which factors affect their alignment and behavior during metallization.

In the first experiment, we collected samples printed with knotless screens across their entire lifetime in mass manufacturing at the factory. To track screen expansion trends, we examined and analyzed these samples using a high-precision microscope and automated measurement equipment.

In the second experiment, we examined how snap-off distance and squeegee length affect end-to-end finger pattern extension in the second. We isolated and analyzed these parameters’ effects on screen expansion and finger alignment precision in this experiment. Higher snap-off distances cause more printed image displacement, while longer squeegees reduce expansion effects, especially at higher snap-off values.

Systematic measurements revealed a progressive increase in screen expansion, from +10 μm after 10,000 prints to +20 μm by the end of its lifetime (30,000–70,000 prints). The study sets guidelines for the use of knotless screens for precise print-on-print alignment in advanced technologies such as Cu-TOPCon cells and Advanced TOPCon solar cells with patterned p-type or n-type poly-Si fingers [1] [2] [3]. Large-scale solar cell manufacturing requires optimized print and screen parameters to increase metallization alignment precision. This study gives industry guidance.

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太阳能电池批量生产中无结丝网的变形

先进的太阳能电池技术可能需要精确的打印对打印或对准特定的金属化，以提高能源效率和质量。本研究在两个测试中检查无结印刷丝网，以确定哪些因素影响其在金属化过程中的对齐和行为。在第一个实验中，我们收集了在工厂大规模生产的整个生命周期中使用无结屏幕印刷的样品。为了跟踪屏幕扩展趋势，我们使用高精度显微镜和自动化测量设备检查和分析了这些样品。在第二个实验中，我们研究了在第二个实验中，掰断距离和刮刀长度如何影响端到端的手指模式延伸。在本实验中，我们分离并分析了这些参数对屏幕扩展和手指对准精度的影响。较长的刮片距离会导致更多的印刷图像位移，而较长的刮片会降低膨胀效果，特别是在较高的刮片值时。系统测量显示，屏幕扩展逐渐增加，从10,000次打印后的+10 μm到使用寿命结束时的+20 μm（30,000-70,000次打印）。该研究为先进技术（如Cu-TOPCon电池和先进的TOPCon太阳能电池，具有图案p型或n型多晶硅指[1][2][3]）中使用无结屏幕进行精确的印刷对印校准设定了指导方针。大规模太阳能电池制造需要优化印刷和屏幕参数，以提高金属化对准精度。本研究具有行业指导意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 工程技术-材料科学：综合

CiteScore

12.60

自引率

11.60%

发文量

513

审稿时长

47 days

期刊介绍： Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells is intended as a vehicle for the dissemination of research results on materials science and technology related to photovoltaic, photothermal and photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion. Materials science is taken in the broadest possible sense and encompasses physics, chemistry, optics, materials fabrication and analysis for all types of materials.