Scientists from Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE and US panel maker Solaria utilized thermal laser separation and post-metallization passivated edge expertise to tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cell manufacturing. They produce shingle PV gadgets which are extra environment friendly than cells constructed utilizing standard laser scribing and mechanical cleaving strategies.
Scientists from Germany Fraunhofer Institute for Photo voltaic Vitality Programs ISE and US-based photo voltaic panel maker Solaria has developed a photo voltaic cell primarily based on TOPCon expertise and shingle design.
“To the perfect of our information, that is the primary publication coping with TOPCon shingle photo voltaic cells separated by thermal laser separation (TLS) and edge-passivated by passivated edge expertise (PET),” mentioned researcher Elmar Lohmüller. pv journal. “PET is a proprietary growth of Fraunhofer ISE, to deal with the chopping losses of present half-cut, third-cut, or shingle photo voltaic cells, via easy, high-throughput post-processing of singulated cells.”
Fraunhofer ISE filed a patent utility again in 2018 and affords a pattern of the expertise for companions. Solaria was one of many first trade companions to check post-metallization PET in TOPCon shingle photo voltaic cells.
“The PET methodology can meet an necessary want within the trade – to scale back the lack of effectivity incurred in chopping the cell and do it in an efficient method,” Ricky Dunbar, a spokesman for Solaria, mentioned . pv journal. “Our cooperation with Fraunhofer ISE reveals that PET can successfully scale back these losses for TOPCon shingle cells with a promising throughput.”
The proposed manufacturing course of makes use of thermal laser separation (TLS) as a substitute of standard laser scribing and mechanical cleaving (LSMC) for cell singulation. TLS requires solely a brief preliminary laser scribe with a cleave laser and a water-air aerosol jet to create an initiating crack that may propagate via the wafer in any course.
“This leads to cuts with smoother edges,” the scientists defined, noting that the TLS was produced by the microDICE laser system produced by 3D-Micromac in Germany.
“The TLS course of optimized on this work offers as much as 0.2% extra environment friendly shingle cells immediately after separation in comparison with shingle cells remoted by LSMC,” the lecturers mentioned. , which states that the cell primarily based on TLS achieves an influence conversion effectivity of twenty-two.0% “It’s proven that TLS may be carried out in such a method that there isn’t a deterioration within the high quality of the floor passivation that happens within the setting on the dividing line.”
The analysis workforce introduced its findings in “TOPCon shingle photo voltaic cells: Thermal laser separation and passivated edge expertise,” just lately revealed in Advances in Photovoltaics.
“Whereas we’re nonetheless within the growth part of an industrial PET software, legitimate knowledge for the yield ratios of the 2 strategies for a dependable value calculation should not but accessible sufficient, ” mentioned Lohmüller. “Nonetheless, PET will add a step to the method, which to our present information can simply be modified to present throughput necessities, thus the demonstrated effectivity acquire has a whole lot of potential to compensate for the extra value. “
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