DEK Solar Blog

Going to SNEC? We’ll see you there!

 
Now we’re well and truly into the New Year, thoughts have turned to the promising indications our industry has served up for the year ahead.

Asia in particular is an extremely important marketplace right now, moving from strength to strength as we speak. Or blog. No doubt this will be very much in evidence at the 5^th SNEC International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference & Exhibition, being held in Shanghai from February 22^nd – 24^th.

Avid readers of this blog will recall that we’ve made some choice remarks about the solar industry’s exhibition landscape of late. However, this exhibition looks set to provide an extremely valuable platform for us to showcase innovative PV metallization technologies to Asian customers looking to think beyond equipment, and towards a long-term productivity advantage.

So, we’ll not only be using the show to showcase pioneering technologies such as Eclipse, but we’ll be showing how we back this up with an unrivalled level of service and support. It’s nothing less than a complete solar solution, but fortunately you don’t have to take our word for it, you can see for yourself!

Here at DEK Solar, our customers in China and beyond know that we’re a solar supplier with a difference. Not only do we deliver pioneering metallization technologies such as Eclipse, but we back this up with in-house screens & stencil design and manufacture expertise – and an unrivalled level of service and support. Find out about our complete solar solution at SNEC.

See you there!

- Karen Moore-Watts, DEK Solar Global Marcom Director

Looking back – and forward! John’s reflections & predictions.

As DEK Solar Chairman, I’ve been reflecting on the year gone by recently and naturally, my attention has turned to what 2011 has in store for us. So, here are my thoughts – for what they’re worth!

2010 was better than even we could have predicted. After the downturn of 2009, last year was characterised by a solar market ramp-up of an unprecedented scale. Of course, we had seen clear signs of recovery but the explosive return of the industry exceeded our expectations.

Naturally, we capitalised on the market buoyancy and launched a new scalable platform for solar cell metallization. It was very well received. Very well indeed! With the world hungry for sustainable green energy, more players entered the photovoltaic race. We knew that scalability was the hinge pin. Companies were looking to establish manufacturing quickly then ramp up production to meet demand. What they needed was a metallization platform that could grow with them equally as rapidly. We gave them that with our new Eclipse and bookings have remained strong.

Fortunately, our years of experience in manufacturing flexibility both in our UK and China plants allowed us to keep lead times short, though perhaps not as short as we would have liked. But that’s a primary objective for 2011. One way we’re achieving this is by starting to manufacture solar equipment in China, which puts us closer to most of our customers – right now China remains the hub of world photovoltaic manufacturing.

Going forward, we have a raft of initiatives in place to grow the DEK Solar team and deliver even greater localised support. Internally we look forward to appointing more engineering and operations staff, and to increasing our manufacturing space in the UK and China. Again! Our customers can expect to see more sales and applications resources, including an expanded and more effective laboratory & demonstration facility in China which we’ll make available to our customers. So, if you’ll excuse the cliché, the future’s bright!

- John Knowles, DEK Solar Chairman

Happy holidays from all at DEK Solar!

2010 has been a tricky year for every industry, worldwide. Here in the solar market, we’re perhaps among the lucky few who are cushioned by an extremely strong industry that was always going to be poised for a speedy recovery. Here at DEK Solar, we’ve certainly seen this in action; we’re pleased to report that our business - and those of our customers - have grown from strength to strength.

But, as we reflect on a positive 2010, it’s clear to see that this success has been down to more than an increasingly robust marketplace. It’s also been driven by the launch of a pioneering new photovoltaic metallization platform, increased manufacturing capacity and continual innovation across the business to meet customer challenges.

One of the main challenges facing the solar industry in 2010 was cell efficiency. And, since grid parity is the holy grail of solar cell production, I predict that this issue will continue to dominate through 2011 and beyond. For example, we’ve seen increasing interest in our Print-on-Print processes, enabling cell manufacturers to print higher, narrower collector grid features onto the front of solar cells to deliver the high efficiency energy conversion capabilities key to future success.

Going forward, cell producers must respond to increasing demand quickly – which means that equipment must facilitate easy and quick scale-up, without impacting heavily on factory floor space. Our breakthrough new Eclipse metallization platform addresses this need and will continue to do so through continued development over the next year.

To get more desirable products from the end of the line – products that convert more sunlight for example – there is a real need for higher levels of throughput and yield – without compromise. Essentially, as we move into 2011, we’re seeing a real demand for innovation in both process technology and equipment technology, all backed by the experience and knowledge necessary to minimise downtime.

There is recognition of the need for more sophisticated equipment with high functionality options. Fortunately, with extensive screen printing experience and in-house screen and stencil design and manufacture expertise, we are well placed to help today’s solar cell manufacturers achieve ever-complex goals. We’re looking forward to the challenges of 2011!

We wish you an extremely happy Christmas and a prosperous 2011. Thanks for your support this year; I’ll see you in the New Year!

- Darren Brown, DEK Solar Alternative Energy Business Manager

DEK Solar lights up the big screen…

When we say big screen, it really depends how big your computer or mobile device is. Essentially, we’ve released some very interesting animations and videos recently and thought we’d use this opportunity to flag them up to you, our faithful blog readers.

Inevitably, the video attracting the most interest at the moment is our Eclipse animation. Our brand new PV metallization platform is based on a completely new design to enable you to scale production in line with capacity. It’s an industry first. And, since we know that seeing is believing, we’ve created an animation that brings Eclipse’s scalability to life.

The Eclipse animation takes you through the scale-up process step-by-step, highlighting how you can easily scale production without increasing line size by removing and exchanging blank process modules for extra printer modules. You can double basic configuration to 2400 wph or even, triple it to 3600 wph! See for yourself by watching the animation.

 

Other video-related developments include two very interesting interviews regarding the Eclipse launch. Located on our YouTube Channel, new videos include:

Myself and Company Chairman John Knowles introducing the Eclipse platform at EU PVSEC in Valencia recently, explaining its scalability advantage and what this means for today’s solar manufacturers.

 

Debra Vogler from Photovoltaics World Magazine interviewing me about our recent breakthrough developments in Print-on-Print (PoP) technology.

 

Stay tuned to our YouTube Channel for more video updates soon!

-Darren Brown, Alternative Energy Business Manager

Solar Power International; a reflection...

As our regular readers will know, we’ve had a lot to say on the subject of solar exhibitions recently. Our team has previously blogged about there being too many shows and publications trying to cash in on the burgeoning solar sector. And now, we find ourselves at yet another one.

At the moment, I’m in Los Angeles for the Solar Power International exhibition. It marks the US launch of our new Eclipse PV metallization technology – so, even before the show opened, hopes were high!

And, I’m pleased to report that so far, these hopes have not been dashed. The show exceeded our expectations for the notoriously tricky day one. The DEK Solar stand was fairly busy all day with a diverse range of visitors approaching the team. SPI is renowned for its extremely broad scope of coverage, so we’ve seen exhibitors spanning a wide spectrum. In the face of this diversity, we’re pleased with the level of interest in our cell metallization solutions.

Of course, Eclipse has created quite a stir already. We’re extremely proud of this platform and genuinely believe in its ability to deliver a real breakthrough in the quest for grid parity. We were able to show visitors how the platform enables them to easily scale production up to 1200, 2400 or 3600 wph – providing true modularity, scalability and configurability.

Our Alternative Energy Business Manager, Darren Brown, was also interviewed by Debra Vogler at Photovoltaics World about our recent breakthrough in the area of Print-on-Print, delivering measurable improvements in conductor aspect ratios, with dramatic efficiency gains proven to be sustainable in production volumes over many wafers.

You can watch the video online now.  

- Andy Ure, USA Business Development Manager

P.S. it’s great to see so much twitter activity for this show, with many people using the #solpwr10 hashtag. We’re one of them so remember to follow @deksolar for our latest updates!

Seems you can make a poor show perform if you put extra effort in; but how long must we go on doing this?

At the end of April this year, I penned a blog that asked if Solar Expos might be in danger of digging their own graves. Having just returned from the EU PVSEC event in Valencia, I thought it would be good to re-visit that question…

As it happens, EU PVSEC was a very good show for DEK Solar. But that doesn’t mean it was a very good show in its own right. It wasn’t.

In my view, there are two significant factors that made the event successful for us.

First, we planned our participation well in advance, distributed plenty of timely and well-targeted pre-show communications materials and – most importantly – built a diary stuffed full of appointments with key customers, prospects, industry influencers and the media. That’s always our strategy but this time it made the difference between abject failure and acceptable success. Our booth was always busy with back-to-back meetings. In contrast, the show aisles were not busy. ‘Footfall’, as it’s called, was way down on last year’s event in Hamburg and the previous show in Valencia in 2008. Quite simply and quite noticeably, less people attended.

Second, the DEK Solar brand is now relatively well established in the solar marketplace. By launching the new Eclipse platform with all its modular and field-scalable attributes at Valencia, we attracted even more attention and were rewarded with a great deal of interest. Another reward that can’t be overlooked is our second consecutive Solar Industry Award, presented to us at the show. Recognition from the industry and awards programmes is extremely satisfying for me, as it wasn’t that way back in 2008 when we appeared to many people to be the new kids on the block!

So awareness of the DEK Solar brand, our focused expertise and unique product range, and our strategy to commit people ahead of time to visiting our booth rather than hope they drop by made the difference in a show that struggled to deliver on many other levels.

I’m not sure what the full issue is with EU PVSEC’s decreasing ability to attract visitors. As shows go, it’s no upstart. This was its 25^th year. My colleague and DEK’s global marketing director Karen Moore-Watts believes that Valencia is not an easy city to reach. And that wouldn’t help. But more fundamentally we both believe, as I said in my April blog, that there are too many shows and publications trying to cash in on the mushrooming solar sector.

We’ve seen this before in other market sectors. Too many shows means that visitors get spread more thinly. And a lack of visitors ultimately makes exhibiting unjustifiable. It seems that exhibition organisers are still not taking a holistic view of their market or considering the needs of an international marketplace and international customers. I’ve witnessed the results of this type of short-termism and it’s not a happy scenario for event organisers or publishers. As equipment vendors and expertise providers to the sector, we take a long term view of the market, our products and our competitors, and structure ourselves accordingly to prosper. With a 41-year track record behind DEK, it’s probably good advice.

- Darren Brown, Alternative Energy Business Manager.

A total Eclipse of…your solar metallization platform.

We’ve been really busy here at DEK recently, not that I’m complaining of course! As well as seeing huge rise in demand for our PV platforms and having expanded our Weymouth manufacturing facility, we’ve also been preparing for the launch of our latest innovation. So, I think it’s about time I took to the blog to tell all and make sure you’re among the first to hear about Eclipse.

First up, what is Eclipse? It’s a very high throughput complete metallization solution for commercial solar cell production. For those of you familiar with DEK Solar equipment, it features everything you might expect from one of our high-end platforms – six-sigma repeatability at class-leading accuracies, print speeds of 600mm/sec, advanced handling, integrated vision inspection and superior positional accuracy. Plus, it also features parallel print head processing options to maximise productive uptime.

But, believe it or not, there’s much more to Eclipse than this! The platform’s real advantage comes in the form of a highly flexible design concept. I’d go so far as to say it’s an industry first – it has huge implications for DEK Solar customers around the world.

I’ll try and put this into perspective for you. Eclipse is comprised of a series of field retrofittable process modules that enable you to easily scale production up and down as demand dictates. Primary process expansion modules including the print head and unloader, incorporate all the master controls. So, all additional process modules operate as secondary slaves, meaning that you don’t have to repeat the control modules – a real cost and productivity advantage.

Essentially, this means that you only need to invest money in the Eclipse features and performance you need today. But at the same time, you have complete assurance that when you want to expand your capacity in the future, it’s simply a case of slotting in extra modules. What’s more, if you foresee future growth at the outset, you can specify Eclipse ‘spacer’ units up front which get replaced with the slot-in modules when you upscale.

This means you don’t even have to move the plumbing and electrics for the firing ovens! Plus, the scale-up cost is only incremental, not an entire new platform investment.

I hope this gives you an idea of just how important this launch is – if you’re coming to EU PVSEC in Valencia over September 6^th – 10^th you can see for yourself! We’ll be in Hall L2/H4, Stand B14, showcasing Eclipse for the very first time.

- Darren Brown, DEK Solar Alternative Energy Business Manager

We’re looking forward to Semicon West/InterSolar!

As many of you will know by now, here at DEK Solar, we’re very fond of the exhibition circuit. You’ll know this because you’ll probably have seen us at an event near you at some point. And if you haven’t? Here’s your chance; we’re currently at the Semicon West/InterSolar PV exhibitions being held in San Francisco. Catch us in the North Hall on stand 5251.

The reason we’re so fond of the exhibition circuit is not because we get to travel to great places like San Francisco. Although, naturally, it’s a great perk! The reason is actually because we know there’s nothing better than meeting with people face to face and explaining how exactly our PV technologies can help them meet their precise solar goals.

If you’re going to San Francisco, make sure you come and say hello to me or any other member of our team. We’ll be more than happy to talk to you about our recent technology innovations and process advances, including our award-winning PV1200 metallization line, delivering six-sigma process capability at a resolution of ±12.5 micron. And then there’s our very high throughput PV3000 metallization line. Talk to us about how the platform’s multiple print heads operating in parallel can virtually eliminate downtime.

You can also talk to us about how you can benefit from emerging techniques such as Print-on-Print (PoP) – which you may remember Darren's spoken about in previous blogs. Enhancing cell efficiency and driving down cost-per-watt, PoP is designed to give finer grid lines more height. The process involves printing lines twice over or more to increase the conductor's cross-sectional area to enhance current-capacity without shadowing underlying silicon substrate.

Last, but certainly not least, use the shows as an opportunity to find out more about our new Hybrid Screen technology – a real world solution for higher aspect ratio printing that deliver improved frontside conductor finger patterns minus the cost and complexity traditionally associated with this area of photovoltaic development.

So, if you’re going to either show, come and see us on Stand 5251! Looking forward to seeing you there.

- Andy Ure, DEK Solar USA Business Development Manager

Efficiency, continued.

I recently posted a version of my Circuits Assembly column that outlined the importance of repeatable accuracy to cell efficiency. If you read it, you’ll know I feel strongly about this issue! Hope I didn’t scare you... Well, I’ve since written an update to this in the magazine so thought I’d bring you, our faithful blog readers, the next chapter of this particular story...

In my previous post I mentioned that the PV industry is investing heavily in reducing the width of the silver conductor grid that is screen printed onto the front side of the cell and that effectively shadows the precious light-capturing real estate below. With current feature widths at 100-120µm, this shadow effect has been reduced as much as it can be using existing PV processes. So, where next?

Finer line work, although it may not sound overly complicated to anyone active in electronics production, requires a step change in technique and approach. One solution is to print the conductors twice over, effectively doubling their height. This is achieved using Print-on-Print (PoP) technology, and enables us to print features down to 50-60µm wide without compromising their precious conductive capacity.

PoP capability also comes into its own in the Selective Etching cell structuring technique. If you’re unsure what this is, it’s where an etchant is screenprinted onto the cell's surface in a grid pattern identical to that of the conductor grid. When it heats up, the etchant removes the cell's non-reflective top layer and exposes the silicon underneath, so that in the subsequent print pass, the silver grid comes into direct contact with the cell's active energy-transforming layer.

In similar vein, the Selective Emitter process aims to boost efficiencies by printing extra n-type dopant in a pattern mirroring that of the collection grid. With more and more attention being paid to these new PoP processes it’s clear that, if not already, repeatable accuracy is soon to become the name of the game for manufacturers of solar cells and modules.

This will put even more pressure on us to ensure that our processes are accurate, and repeatably, reliably so. Sophisticated, powerful metrics such as the Process Capability Index (Cpk), long used by the semiconductor and circuit board assembly sectors, will soon become critical for the PV industry too, as manufacturers strive to maximise end of line yields, reliability, and bottom line performance in an increasingly demanding marketplace. Here at DEK, we say bring it on! We’re ready and waiting to help our customers realise new levels of efficiency – for even higher returns.

Stay tuned folks; I’ll update you on our progress over the coming months.

- Darren Brown, Alternative Energy Business Manager.

Repeatable accuracy? Read ‘more efficiency’...

From time to time, the good folks at Circuits Assembly magazine ask me to write a column for them highlighting my thoughts on current industry issues. And because each of these tends to focus on something I’m passionate about, I’ll always try to convert these articles into blogs to keep you posted on what I’m thinking about when it comes to our industry. Assuming you’re interested that is! Well, here goes; the first in this series is on the subject of accuracy – something I know which is close to all of our hearts.

One of the main issues facing the solar industry is cell efficiency. I’d confidently go so far as to say it’s key to solar’s medium and long-term success since it directly impacts on cost per watt. Now, here comes the science: over 90% of PV cells are based on silicon wafers, onto which light harvesting capacity is built using diffusion techniques. On top of this, a grid of silver energy-collecting “fingers” and bus bars is printed to route energy off the cell.

That’s where our first challenge comes into play. Given that current industry practice is to print all of these features on the light-gathering side, they effectively shadow the underlying silicon substrate, rendering that real estate incapable of doing what it was designed for.

One obvious route to increased cell efficiencies is to give finer lines more height, but the physical properties of printing screens, and the release properties of standard silver screen printing pastes, effectively put a maximum height on 50-60µm lines of about 15µm. “Not good enough!” I hear you say. Agreed. So, one of the ways around this is to print the lines twice over, in a Print-On-Print process that effectively doubles grid height, and therefore its current-carrying capacity. Everyone’s a winner.

Providing they do it right, of course. As we know from our experience with this procedure for the semiconductor and biomedical sectors, repeatable accuracy is the key here. Mainly because without it, this fine line work would simply be impossible. Consider too that a high definition screen print relies on an effective gasket between the substrate and the underside of the print screen, so alignment must be perfect.

Wherever you look in the solar cell and module assembly industry, repeatable print alignment accuracy is at the heart of efficiency. If solar energy is to become a widely available, cost-effective alternative energy source that excels on its own merits, efficiency must increase while material costs and the cost-per-watt needs to be driven down. Which is why efficiency is at the heart of our PV3000 metallization platform! It’s also why we’re edging closer to grid parity every single day. See you there!

- Darren Brown, Alternative Energy Business Manager.