Short Drying Processes for Silicon Solar Cells

Daniel Ourinson, Michael Linse, Markus Klawitter, Andreas Lorenz Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg, Germany

This work successfully demonstrates very short drying processes for the screen-printed electrodes of passivated emitter and rear cells. The short drying processes are conducted in an inline heating system with vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) as its heat source, being a compact alternative to the conventional heat chamber. While the heating time of the conventional industrial drying process is believed to be about 20 s (to the best of the authors’ knowledge), the VCSEL system allows a significant reduction down to 0.15 s while maintaining a similar power conversion efficiency and contact adhesion quality.