Optomec announced today
that they will showcase their patented Aerosol Jet® Print technology for
higher efficiency solar cells, at the 23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy
Conference and Exhibition in Valencia, Spain on September 1st-4th. Optomec will
be available to discuss the Aerosol Jet platform in their Stand, # 3B/6a. In
addition, Manz Automation, Optomec’s strategic wafer automation partner
for the PV market, has completed the integration of Optomec’s patented
Aerosol Jet-Solar Print Engine into their back end manufacturing line. The integrated
Manz/Aerosol Jet Print Station will be unveiled at PVSEC in the Manz Stand #
2A/27.
During the conference, Dr. Bruce King, who heads Optomec's photovoltaics solution
development efforts, will be presenting further information in the Visual Presentation
area, on “Progress Toward Production: Aerosol Jet Printing for Non-Contact
Solar Cell Metallization.” Dr. King’s presentation will explain
how Optomec’s Aerosol Jet deposition process is able to print much finer
lines than is currently possible with traditional screen-printing methods. These
narrower, high integrity collector lines have higher conductivity and a lower
shadowing effect, thereby increasing photovoltaic cell efficiency. In addition,
because the process is non-contact, Optomec’s Aerosol Jet process can
print on thinner wafers and with less breakage than screen printing techniques.
In a study conducted by Fraunhofer ISE, absolute efficiency gains of .7% were
achieved using the Aerosol Jet printing in conjunction with a plating process.
Manz CEO Dieter Manz is very enthusiastic about the integration: “The
Optomec technology integrated into the Manz back end line will allow the solar
cell manufacturers to make a big step in the improvement of cell efficiency,
to further reduce the breakage and to ultimately use thinner wafers. This will
help our customer to drive down the overall cost of PV rapidly.”
Dave Ramahi, President and CEO of Optomec, states, “The response to our
introduction of Aerosol Jet printing technology at the PVSEC event last year
has been overwhelming. Our Solar customer base has grown by more than 200% to
include leading solar cell manufacturers, materials suppliers and industrial
labs. There's a keen interest in the market to adopt Aerosol Jet as a near-term
replacement for screen printing, and in the medium term as an enabling technology
for next generation cell architectures. We are likewise very pleased that in
just four short months since the announcement of our partnership, the Manz/Optomec
engineering teams have completed the integration of the Aerosol Jet-Solar Print
Engine with the Manz wafer automation system. The road ahead is exciting as
we deliver this new capability for production trials before year-end.”
Optomec is the world-leading provider of additive manufacturing systems for
high-performance applications in the Electronics, Photovoltaic, Biomedical,
and Aerospace & Defense markets. These systems utilize Optomec’s proprietary
M3D Aerosol Jet technology and LENS® powder-metal fabrication technology.
Optomec’s Aerosol Jet platform recently won the IDTechEx award for best
printed electronics manufacturing technology. The company has a global customer
base of more than 60 users that includes many industry-leading manufacturers.
M3D, Aerosol Jet, and Optomec are registered trademarks of Optomec, Inc.