4.1.1 Advanced Screen Printing

Investigator: A/Prof Brett Hallam

Partners: Trina Solar, Solaria

• Develop novel approaches to reduce metal/silicon interface areas to 1-2% independent of print-widths using both metal and insulating pastes, and modified metallisation designs to increase efficiency for a given consumption of silver.

• Consider challenges for tandems and other devices requiring low-temperature metallisation and interconnection schemes.

• Investigate opportunities for new screen-printing approaches at the cell level with electrically conductive adhesives and alternative materials to integrate with novel module fabrication processes including low-temperature interconnection technology for SHJ and tandems, using both screen-printed contacts and plated contacts as used by partner SunDrive.

Objectives

• Investigate impact of using alternative (non-silver) screen-printed conductors on cell performance and reliability for at least three non-silver conductors

• Demonstrate finished solderable screen-printed solar cells with <5 mg/W silver consumption on single junction and tandem devices, well below the 2021 ITRPV target for 2030 (~8 mg/W (50 mg) for PERC in (ITRPV, 2021), Figure 15)

• Demonstrate a modified interconnection method drawing on screen-printing suitable for solar cells with screen-printed and plated contacts

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