Photovoltaic screen printing stencil life

How is screen printing used in photovoltaic solar cells?

Screen printing is also the most commonly and conventionally used printing process throughout the manufacture of photovoltaic solar cells. In fact, over 90% of all crystalline silicon modules are manufactured using screen printing, and about 60% of flexible thin film modules use screen printing in the manufacturing process ( Brenner, 2010 ).

Can a stencil printing process improve a conventional screen printing technique?

In this study conducted by ISFH, a stencil printing process was implemented to evaluate possible improvements versus the conventional screen printing approach. Analysis revealed that the screen printing technique tends to produce solar cell fingers that have a wave-like shape along the finger direction.

Can stencil printing improve fine line print quality?

Higher efficiency is generally realized by optimizing the busbar design, printing finer lines or making adjustments to the silver paste. This paper examines the use of stencil printing instead of screen printing in order to achieve improved fine line print quality for greater efficiency.

What is stencil printing?

Stencil printing is a precursor of screen printing technique. It is widely used in printing circuit boards. It uses a stencil made by using electroforming techniques and the conductive paste passes through a screen free opening. Though a late comer, its market share is expected to grow by 8% in the next decade .