Material Jet Supply

Optomec has announced that leading photovoltaic material suppliers are now providing material for the company's Aerosol Jet printing process. Established material vendors Cabot Corporation, DuPont Microcircuit Materials and Heraeus, along with market newcomer Five Star Technologies, have worked closely with Optomec over the past year to optimize their front-side metallization materials for the Aerosol Jet process. With the availability of source materials from these companies, Optomec and its partners are now fully prepared to meet mutual customers' increased cell efficiency requirements.

Initial material availability will be for seed and plate applications for crystalline wafers. The Aerosol Jet print system is capable of printing front-side collector lines with a width of 40 microns or less at production speeds of up to 2400 wafers per hour. The print material has been optimized for etching through the Silicon Nitride layer and meets series resistance requirements. The printing step is followed by a plating process to build-up the conductivity of the collector lines. Optomec is working in close conjunction with its material partners with goals of further enhancing the seed and plate process along with delivering a fully printed front-side metallization solution that includes a multi-material capability, to allow contact resistance and conductivity to be optimized separately.

Dave Ramahi, President and CEO of Optomec states, “We are pleased that leading and emerging material suppliers have partnered with Optomec to fully enable the benefits of the Aerosol Jet process for solar cell applications. This will allow our customers to readily implement the Aerosol Jet solution for printing front-side collector lines and to meet emerging backside metallization requirements.”