PECVD

Metallization

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Contents
Sr No Topic
1 Solar Cell Process Flow 3-4

2 Screen Printing Purpose 7-8

3 Solar Screen Printing Overview 9-14
4 Printing Components(Screen, Squeegee, Paste, Consumables) 15-34
5 Drying Furnace 35-36
6 Solar Screen Printing Process flow 37-40
7 Process Parameters / CTQ Parameters 41-44
8 Printer line SPC 45-46
9 Defects 47-56
10 Fast Firing 57-62

11 Testing & Sorting 63-78

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Solar Cell Line Process Flow

Intex Diffusion PSG PECVD

Printers Fast firing Tester Sorter

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Solar cell Process Flow

Printers Fast firing Tester Sorter

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Screen Printing –Purpose

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Screen Printing –Purpose
Electrodes formation at both Emitter and Base sides of the Solar Cell.
Soldering area for the module interconnects

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Overview

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Printing Line – Line View

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Printing Overview

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Printing Line- Print Machine View

Inspection system Printing machine DRYER Print nest

Squeegee holder Flipper and buffer Printer head

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Screen Printing

Screen printing is a process which uses a template (Screen) to draw or paint

identical letters, numbers, symbols, shapes, or patterns.

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Working Principle

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Components Of Printing - Screen
3 types of Screens are used for contacts printing :
1. Back Side Bus Bars Printing with Ag (Silver) paste
2. Back Side Full coverage Printing with Al (Aluminium) paste
3. Front Side Contact Printing with Ag (Silver) Paste

Back Ag Back Al Front Ag

•Back Bus bar : To provide electrical connection at Cell Rear Side
•BSF : To provide rear electrical contact. Also work as BSF and Reflector
•Front Ag: To create collector grid lines and silver Bus bars.

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Components Of Printing - Screen

Mesh Count-Number of threads per

centimeter or inch in mesh is called mesh
count. It measure by the mesh count gauge.

Mesh Diameter- The diameter of the one

wire is called the mesh diameter.
Mesh Opening(Width of mesh)- The
distance between the two wires is called
mesh opening.
Screen specification

Printer Mesh count Mesh diameter Type of mesh

Back Bus Bar 280 23 Regular
Back Surface Fill 250/230 23 Regular
Front Contact 400/360 19/16 Calendar
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Components Of Printing - Screen

Mesh frame angle with printing quality.

Mesh angle at 90º Mesh angle at 22.5º

Poor Good

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Components Of Printing - Screen

Screen tension-The tension of mesh is how tightly it is stretched across your frame. It is
measure in N/cm.

In solar screen The tension measure at 5 five

point near the active area of printing. it should
be uniform and average as per our
specification.
Tension- 25 to 30 N/cm

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Components Of Printing - Screen
Emulsion Over Mesh- The EOM’s role is to define the shape of the pattern to be printed
onto the substrate..
The roll of the EOM is to maintain the height and weight deposition on the wafer.

Printer EOM (um)

Back Bus Bar 5±2
Back Surface Fill 5±2
Front Contact 15±1

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Components Of Printing - Paste
Paste- Paste is a conducting martial use to make solar cell electrical contacts. These contact
grids are made of using conductive materials (Silver and Aluminium paste)

Back Ag Paste Al Paste Ag-Paste

Spatula- Used to mix and feed the paste on screen.

Paste rolling machine Spatula

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Printing Paste Characteristics
Front Ag Paste:
• Achieve a higher aspect ratio with low deposition.(Aspect Ratio=Finger Height/Width)
• Fine line capability (50um), Low contact resistance on lightly doped emitter
• Applicable to a wide range of sheet resistance (capable for higher sheet resistance > 90 ohm/sq)
• For 156*156 3BB Paste weight 110mg/wafer, line width 48um to 52um
• Solid content 89.5 to 91.5%
• Viscosity 200 to 280Pa.s

Back Ag Paste:
• Good solderability
• For 156*156 3BB wafer weight 28mg to 32mg
• Solid content 53.5 to 55.5%
• Viscosity 45 to 70Pa.s

Al Paste:
•Low bow
•Excellent BSF formation
•For 156*156 3BB wafer weight 1.45gm to 1.70gm
•Solid content 75.5 to 79.5%
• Viscosity 30 to 60Pa.s

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Components Of Printing - Paste

Back Ag paste
• To provide electrical connection at Cell Rear Side.

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Components Of Printing - Paste

Back Al printing

• It also provide back side passivation due to BSF layer formation.

• It also reflect back long wave length light into the cell.

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Components Of Printing - Paste

Front Ag Paste

• To create collector grid lines and silver Bus bars on Front Side of Cell.

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Components Of Printing – Consumables
 Wipes – Use for cleaning. These are lint free clothes.

Small Wipes Wipe Roll

 Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) – Cleaning agent, used for cleaning in process.

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Drying Furnace (Dryer)
Dryer is a furnace used for drying the paste deposited on cells.

Heating Chamber Exhaust Air Flow Gauge

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Parameters of dryer

 Temperature – 150 to 400°C

 Conveyor speed – 250 to 300cm/min
 Exhaust Air flow – 250 to 350 meter cube per hour
 Inlet Air flow - 250 to 350 meter cube per hour
 Inlet Air temperature – 100 to 200°C

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Solar Screen Printing Process

Back Side Front Side

PECVD coated wafer (INPUT)

Back Ag Rear Side Back Side BSF (Al) Front Side FC (Ag)

Screen Printed Cell (PROCESS)

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Screen Printing –Critical Parameters

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Process Parameters
• Snap-off  Paste deposition Increase with Snap Off
• Pressure  Paste deposition decrease with pressure
• Squeegee Speed  Paste deposition Increase with Squeeze speed

Pressure
Snap off - 1 to 2mm
motion Pressure-55 to 75N/cm
Speed- 110 to 150mm/s

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CTQ Parameters
Critical to quality parameters to be checked/maintained during process are:
1. Weight deposition of paste
2. Finger width of front contact

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CTQ Parameters

Finger width to be checked in Optical Microscope

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Screen Printing –Defects

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Defects- Incoming defects from front end

Front side Back side

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Defects- Incoming defects from front end

Non-uniform Roller mark Chemical Dust mark

texture mark

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Printing defects
Defects Causes Remedies Preventive action

Screen chocked Proper screen cleaning Paste should not be dry on

screen

Foreign–particle in Change the paste box Check Incoming wafer

Misprint paste properly

Squeegee damage Change the squeegee Check the squeegee

periodically

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 Printing defects
Defects Causes Remedies Preventive action
Over paste deposition Proper screen cleaning and Proper mix the paste.
squeegee alignment

Improper drying of Check the temperature regularly Temperature deviation should

Peel off paste paste not be in fast firing and dryer.

Squeegee damage Change the squeegee Check the squeegee periodically

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Printing Defects

Defects Causes Remedies Preventive action

Incoming finger chocked Screen changed Check the screen before
mount on Adopter frame

• Screen chocked. Screen cleaning. Clean the screen

Finger Interruption • Foreign particle stickiness on periodically.
the screen
Maintain the temp and Change the paste. Paste dryness problem
humidity at Shop floor

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 Printing Defects
Defects Causes Remedies Preventive action
• Screen damage due to Screen change. Check the cell properly before
breakage or dust particle & after printing.
Paste mark

• Handling the wafer with Use new gloves Remove the used dirty gloves
used gloves immediately

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Printing defects
Defects Causes Remedies Preventive action
Al-over weight Paste deposition on control Take the laydown after each
deposition. limit. printing section.

Bow Squeegee alignment Squeegee align or change Always make the squeegee on
problem squeegee. plane surface.

Cell thickness variation Control before texturisation. Check the TTV before texturing

Bow cell Good cell

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Defects- Print Offset
Defects Causes Remedies Preventive action
Alignment camera • Communication problem Calibration of camera
malfunctioning

Print Offset
Wafer size problem Check the wafer size at first
process.

offset due to wafer size variation Offset due to camera malfunctioning

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Precautions

 Don’t use used AL paste gloves &

spatulas in Ag printing.

 Don’t use torn/ damaged

gloves.

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Fast Firing

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Purpose of Fast Firing
Fast firing furnace is used to dry the paste and to form the metallic contacts on Front
and Rear side of Solar Cell.

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Motivation
 The silver contact formation to the emitter.
 The passivation quality of the SiNx layer improves ⇒ higher
efficiency
 Bulk Passivation by SiNx layer Hydrogen, which enter bulk at
Higher temperature
 The base is doped with aluminium leading to a back surface field
that passivates the rear side ⇒ higher efficiency
 The line resistance is reduced due to sintering of the silver
particles ⇒ higher efficiency
 The sheet resistance of the aluminium paste is reduced ⇒ higher
efficiency

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Process Overview Drying temperature

Firing temperature

Hot Air Flow Control

Belt Speed

 Belt material – Nickel Chromium

 Lamp – IR Lamp
 Process Sequence
 Process starts by evaporating the organic solvent between 100-200°C
 Burning out the organic solvent between 200°C and 400°C.
 From 400-700°C, the glass frit melts and the sintering of the Ag particles take place.
 From 700-900°C, molten glass with some amount of dissolved Ag etches the silicon nitride anti
reflection coating and then reaches the Si surface.

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Effect of Temperature in paste and wafer contact
1) Organics in Ag paste burn 2) Glass melts, etching SiNx & dissolving Ag

3) Etching Si, dissolving Pb in Ag 4) Cooling, silver crystallizes from glass on Si

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Cell Tester
 MOTIVATION – Cell Testing and Sorting

Testing and Sorting is the final step in Solar cell manufacturing. It Includes
following steps:

 Measure electrical parameters of solar cell.

 Check Colour and Visual quality of Solar cell.

 Classify Solar cell as per Electrical, Colour and Visual quality

 Sorting the Solar cell as per Binning classification

Work Flow..

Camera check Camera

Loading Electrical check Sorter
(Breakage Testing
Check) (Front)
Tester Overview
Cell Testing
 In Electrical Tester, Cell Electrical Parameters are measured at STC
condition.

Screen View
Electrical Parameters

Short Circuit Current (Isc)

The short-circuit current is the current through the solar cell when the voltage
across the solar cell is zero (i.e., when the solar cell is short circuited).
For an ideal cell, this maximum current value is the total current produced in the
solar cell by photon excitation.
Electrical Parameters

Open Circuit Voltage(Voc)

The open-circuit voltage, Voc, is the maximum voltage available from a solar
cell.
This occurs When the cell is operated at open circuit (I = 0)
V (at I=0) = Voc
Electrical Parameters

Maximum Power(Pmax)
Max power peak point Point on IV curve where we get the maximum power.
Current and voltage values at this point are designated as Vmp and Imp
respectively

Pm=Imp*Vmp
Or

Pmax=Isc*Voc*FF
Power = 0 at
Isc and Voc
Electrical Parameters

Fill Factor(FF)
The Fill Factor (FF) is essentially a measure of quality of the solar cell.
If the solar cell could simultaneously deliver the maximum voltage and the maximum
current, the maximum power would be Pm = Voc ×Isc
The actual power is given by Pm= Vm×Im
The solar cell fill factor is thus defined as

Pm
FF 
Voc  I sc

Graphically, the FF is a measure of the

"square-ness" of the solar cell.
 Electrical Parameters

Efficiency(η)
solar cell's energy conversion efficiency(η, "eta"), is the percentage of power
converted from absorbed light to electrical energy
Efficiency (η)= Pout from solar cell/Pin to solar cell
Pout=Isc*Voc*FF
Pin=Area of solar cell*Solar power(w/m2)

Pm Voc  I sc  FF
  
Pin incident solar power
Electrical Parameters
Series resistance ,
 Rs is combination of following resistance :
 Resistance to flow of electrons through the
emitter and base of solar cell.
 Contact resistance between metal contact
and the silicon
 Resistance of top and rear metals contacts
 For Ideal solar cell Rs is considered zero
Electrical Parameters
Shunt Resistance (Rsh)
Rsh in solar cell is resistance of shortest path between emitter and base that
allows charge carriers(electrons) to recombine before they are collected at metallic
contacts.
The shunt resistance represents the loss due to surface leakage along the edge of
the cell or due to crystal defects.
For an ideal cell, Rsh would be infinite and would not provide an alternate path
for current to flow.
 Camera Inspection System
Camera Inspection System is used for :
 Front Print quality
 Camera Image
Back Print Quality
 Colour Classify
 Visual Surface Defect

Camera System
Cell Sorter- Overview
Sort cells in different bins as per Electrical and Visual Quality Classification

Robotic
Arm

Bin
Colour Classification and Defects

AA grade
AD AML AL AUL
Dark-Blue Medium-Blue Light-Blue Ultralight-Blue

A Grade Cells

B Grade Cells

False colour and colour variations

Any Question ????..
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