Materials deposition and patterning methods for advanced solar cell architectures

Advanced solar cell architectures often require the deposition of multiple materials on the wafer surface with precise alignment that is maintained during extended manufacturing runs. In this paper, we will review the challenges of maintaining precise and accurate patterning and describe the performance of the patterning technologies implemented in the Innovalight Cougar™ Platform [1]. We will show that with proper selection of screens, screen manufacturing and printing conditions, it is possible to maintain cumulative pattern distortion under 50 microns for up to 8,000 prints. We will describe the design rules required for the deposition of the Silicon (Si) Ink and metal patterns to maintain device performance over extended manufacturing runs. In the Cougar Platform, screen distortion over time can be compensated by increasing the Si Ink line width, with minimal impact on device efficiency. We demonstrate that the design rules necessary to accommodate all distortions result in less than 0.1% efficiency loss as compared to the ideal case.