Fabrication and Analysis of Photovoltaic Module with PET Electrode Sheet

Currently, the photovoltaic industry is focusing on the development of low-cost modules with increased efficiency by altering the structure of the module. In this study, a PET electrode sheet module was fabricated using a cell/module integration. The module was fabricated by connecting the PET electrode sheet (stacked on a busbar-less solar cell) to electrodes via a lamination process. The electrode sheet was fabricated using flat and grooved PET films. In the module to which the A-stage paste was applied, the electrode slipped and disconnected. In contrast, in the module fabricated using the paste electrode sheet cured in B-stage, the electrode was not disconnected. Following the fabrication of the module using the B-stage paste, the efficiency of the module was measured to be 3.173%. Further, the electrode sheet was fabricated by increasing the volume of the electrode in order to reduce the series resistance and establish smooth contact with the solar cell. Experiments were conducted with a grooving line of 110 µm, the dispenser needle diameter of 150-300 µm, and discharging number of 1 to 2. As the discharging needle diameter increased, the amount of paste increased and the electrode resistance gradually decreased. However, the solar cell light absorption area decreased with the increase in the surface area of the electrode, and the short circuit current gradually decreased. Therefore, fabricated module showed a maximum efficiency of 17.012%, which was achieved using a discharging number of 2 and needle diameter of 200 µm.