Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co. KG (Hanau, Germany) has announced that it supplied metallization pastes for a crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar photovoltaic (PV) cell with a greater than 20% efficiency developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Freiburg, Germany).

The company states that the record-setting PV cell is based upon a combination of Metal Wrap-Through (MWT) and Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC) technologies. Heraeus developed a paste to connect the front-side and the back side of the MWT cell, and also supplied the front-side paste for the project.

"Silver metallization pastes are needed as the initial path for conducting the energy generated in the cell to the electricity grid," explains Heraeus. "Silver is the most electrically conductive element in the periodic table and therefore, is the most widely used component for metallization pastes."

"The paste is screen-printed on solar cells and subsequently incorporated into the cells during a high temperature process. Precisely formulated silver metallization pastes enable an optimized efficiency gain of the solar cell."

MWT, PERC technologies can increase cell efficiencies

Heraeus states MWT and PERC technology both have the potential to increase PV cell efficiencies on their own, and that the combination of the two can provide even greater cell efficiencies.

Heraeus notes that it offers customers pastes that are specially formulated for novel cell designs, such as the MWT-PERC concept, and introduced a new series of pastes for low-temperature processing in 2011.

2012-02-03| Courtesy: Heraeus | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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