Product Review: DuPont’s ‘Solamet’ PV19B metallization paste uses proprietary tellurium technology

DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions developed and launched a new advanced ‘DuPont’ ‘Solamet’ PV19B photovoltaic metallization front side paste that has a highly conductive silver composition and part of the PV19x family of pastes, with innovative material science which enables finer line design and excellent printability.

Problem

To gain improved solar cell conversion efficiencies from front-sided cells, producers need to focus on the fabrication of higher contact aspect ratio’s with narrower lines with better edge definition and smoother morphology to increase surface area light absorption. However, improved productivity and throughput remain key concerns to lower production costs, requiring better printability and yield.

Solution

DuPont Solamet PV19B is claimed to enable more than 0.1% solar cell efficiency improvement over other products currently used in the industry. Based on DuPont’s proprietary tellurium technology, Solamet PV19B photovoltaic metallization paste combines excellent contact performance with the ability to achieve very fine line, high aspect ratio, and smooth finger lines. Moreover PV19B is claimed to possess excellent paste transfer, allowing higher print speeds to be deployed such that industry average throughputs can be improved by up to 26%. Utilizing the new paste DuPont said that solar cell producer TSEC was able to achieve >18.7% efficiency in cell level and 270W power output generated by 60-multi c-Si cells. 

Applications

Standard screen print process.

Platform

DuPont Solamet PV19B is a highly conductive silver composition, part of the PV19x family, with new material science which enables finer line design and excellent printability. This paste is able to be co-fired with back side (p-type) aluminum conductors such as ‘DuPont Solamet PV3xx’ and ‘DuPont Solamet PV5xx’ tabbing silvers. It is also designed for rapid dry and fast (spike) firing, with the thermal budget above 600°C kept to a minimum, ideally <8 seconds to ensure optimum electrical contact to the wafer.

Availability

February 2016 onwards. 

Tags: c-si manufacturing, solar cell, metallisation