Heraeus Joins Hand with Jinergy to Break Through Technical Barriers to Double Printing

This ultra-fine-line (UFL) printing process is the world’s first breakthrough in the double-print technology.

One of the leading suppliers of metallization solutions to PV industry, Heraeus Photovoltaics jointly with Jinergy Clean Energy Technology has developed and successfully ramped up the 18-μm opening screen printing process on solar cells.

The company said in a statement that, this ultra-fine-line (UFL) printing process is the world’s first breakthrough in the double-print technology.

As compared with the 22-μm opening screen printing employed in mass production, the 18-μm opening screen process has improved the efficiency by 0.05 percent and reduced the paste cost by over 15 percent, setting a technical benchmark in the quest for UFL printability, efficiency gains and cost leadership in the PV industry.

During the signing ceremony at 2018 SNEC, Jinergy, General Manager, Liyou Yang said, “Ever since its inception, Jinergy has established and maintained a long-term strategic partnership with Heraeus. Without such a close collaboration and combined R&D strength and innovations, we would not be able to remove the technical barriers to UFL printing and therefore realize the 18-μm opening screen process.”

“As two world-leading players in the PV manufacturing value chain, Heraeus and Jinergy will further our cooperation, make joint efforts to promote technical progress and development of the clean energy industry and make contributions to the society,” Yang added.

“We are pleased to work with ambitious and innovative companies like Jinergy, to embrace changes and challenges in the PV industry. This year will see a dynamic PV market. We believe these ground-breaking technologies and processes will fully play their roles in the PV industry. We are well prepared for this, and expect to further the cooperation with Jinergy to create more values for the PV value chain,” said Dr Weiming Zhang, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, Heraeus Photovoltaics.

As per the company statement, the 18-μm opening screen printing process is based on Heraeus SOL9642B series, a newly upgraded double-print front-side silver paste.

Besides, this new generation product carries all the advantages of SOL9641A and 9641B platforms and ensures outstanding efficiency gain through improved double-print ultra-fine-line printability with higher aspect ratio, it added.