copper plating

The evolution of metallization paste and its impact on cell technology development was a key topic at PV CellTech 2018. During the conference, we caught up with Guangyao Jin, chief scientist, DuPont Solamet photovoltaic metallization pastes, to discuss industry trends.

Nanoelectronics research centre imec said that copper-based solar cells have reached the same reliability standards as traditional silver-based solar cells in recently completed rapid-cycle testing of a limited number of specially prepared modules.

Meco Equipment Engineers, a subsidiary of BE Semiconductor Industries provides its Cell Plating Line (CPL) for a wide variety of next-generation solar cell architectures migrating from silver to copper contacts, which drastically reduces the high metallization costs associated with Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) and heterojunction cells.

Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier RENA Technologies has secured a significant technology order win from a major solar cell producer in China, its first production order for its advanced copper plating technology.