Sun Chemical Offers Cost Saving Material Solutions for PV Manufacturers

During the SNEC 2012 PV Power Expo in Shanghai, Sun Chemical and its parent company DIC will show how photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers can save money by taking advantage of Sun Chemical’s unique one-stop shop offering, including a broad range of metallization solutions for both additive and subtractive processes as well as module materials for use in the crystalline silicon (c-Si), thin film, printed electronics and other emerging markets.

“Solar cell manufacturers are continually searching for new ways to reduce the cost of solar cells, and Sun Chemical is uniquely positioned to help them accomplish their goals,” said Roy Bjorlin, commercial director of Sun Chemical Electronic Materials. “Sun Chemical and DIC offer a full range of solutions for additive and subtractive processes by offering metallization pastes, insulators, and resists. We’re inviting our guests at SNEC to harness the power of Sun by taking advantage of our high quality photovoltaic solutions at a lower cost when bundled together.”

A wide range of metallization pastes will be on display at booth 230 in hall 2W1 for the c-Si, thin film and printed electronics markets. c-Si manufacturers of conventional and selective emitter PV cells will be shown a variety of silver tabbing and aluminum backside pastes such as SunTronic Cellmet 437W Backside Aluminum paste and SunTronic Cellmet 451W Silver Tabbing Paste.

Formulated for screen printing processes, SunTronic Cellmet Aluminum metal pastes are optimized for low bowing and higher efficiency binning rates. Sun Chemical’s SunTronic Cellmet Silver tabbing formulations for back side are designed to form a solderable surface with high adhesion. Designed to create a tabbing conductor on p-type silicon solar wafers, the pastes are lead-, cadmium-, and thallium-free, and have been optimized to be co-fireable with other metal pastes.

Sun Chemical’s thin film silver and graphite conductor pastes and inks are specifically designed for low temperature processing on all of the leading thin film technologies such as CIGS, CdTe and OPV.

SunTronic Solsys Screen silver and graphite pastes and SunTronic Solsys inkjet nanosilver inks are both available and offer excellent adhesion to various indium tin oxide (ITO), combined with low contact resistance.

Screen and digital printable silver pastes/inks and aluminum pastes for the c-Si market are sold under the SunTronic Cellmet brand name. Screen printable silver and graphite pastes as well as inkjet nanoparticle silver inks for the thin film market are sold under the SunTronic Solsys brand name, and SunTronic Eclipse PTF silver, and graphite pastes/inks are sold to printed electronics manufacturers and other emerging applications.

Available for digital and screen printing, Sun Chemical’s full range of alkali and solvent removable resists are formulated to withstand alkaline and acidic etchants for use in various subtractive printed electronic processes such as selective emitter and interdigitated back contact.

Based on proprietary wax and resin compositions, Sun Chemical’s Schmid-approved SunTronic Cellmet Inkjet Hot Melt etch/plate resist series of inks are intended for use through piezo DOD printheads, offer a strong degree of substrate independence, and are used primarily for acid etching or plating resists on silicates and metallic substrates.

Sun Chemical also offers a range of insulators and dielectrics that can be used in screen print, roller coat, and inkjet applications. Available in both UV and thermal cure, SunTronic Cellmet Insulator and Dielectric products can be used as permanent isolation layers in various photovoltaic cell configurations such as interdigitated back contact, metal wrap through, and emitter wrap through. Sun Chemcal’s isolation/dielectric layers are specially formulated for high temperature resistance and high definition printing.

Screen print and inkjet resists and dielectrics/insulators for c-Si manufacturers are sold under the SunTronic Cellmet brand name, while SunTronic Solsys etch resists/dielectrics are for the thin film market. SunTronic Eclipse resists and dielectrics are sold to printed electronics manufacturers.

Sun Chemical and DIC will be co-exhibiting at SNEC to highlight its capability for providing customers material solutions for module manufacturing. DIC offers technical solutions for both frontsheet and backsheet applications and has many products under development.

Visitors of Sun Chemical and DIC’s booth will learn more about how DIC can provide module material solutions for each individual application and can see the module on display which has been constructed using DIC module materials.

For more information about Sun Chemical’s products on display during SNEC 2012, visit /products/photovoltaic/overview or visit booth 230 in hall 2W1 on May 16-18, 2012 in Shanghai, China.