The future of economical solar cell manufacturing is becoming dependent on new in-line process technology for high speed continuous production. Enercon has pioneered the use of surface treatment in the converting industry and now PV cell manufacturers are quickly adapting this technology to their processes.
Surface preparation techniques are being used to remove organic contaminations, micro-etch polymer surfaces to increase surface surface area, and for crosslinking/ functionalizing effects to promote bonding. The integration of atmospheric plasma technology is being used during PV cell fabrication, as well as during upstream assembly processes.
Solar cell manufactures that are adapting their production to included atmospheric plasma technology are experiencing significant cost savings. Removal of contaminations alone such as organics, fluorine or oxides by atmospheric plasma discharges can significantly reduce reliance on wet chemical processes to enhance performance of photovoltaics. This inline continuous process also results in increased productivity.
Enercon’s atmospheric plasma treater Plasma3™ for webs and Blown Ion air plasma treaters for objects are being used on a variety of solar cell manufacturing applications ranging from flexible roll-to-roll thin film photovoltaics, rigid module, and 3-dimensional PV components.