WORLD-GENERATION MAY/JUNE 2016
16
While solar power has become a main-
stream concept, solar cell manufacturers
still often face a roadblock: the cost.
Though the cost of solar panels has come
down – they are over 100 times less expen-
sive now than in 1977 – even further
reductions can be made. For solar to truly
compete with traditional energy, as well as
other alternative energy sources, the cost
of production needs to be significantly
reduced.
In the manufacturing of solar cells,
solar cell metallization – the printing of
conductive grids with conductive inks to
draw off the current for the production of
electricity – is a major cost-determining
step in solar cell production. Screen print-
ing, the traditional technology used today
for solar cell metallization, requires the
printing equipment to come in direct con-
tact with the wafer. Often the screen print-
ing equipment breaks the cell, wasting
valuable and expensive materials, includ-
ing metal and silicon. As a result of cell
breakage, manufacturers cannot further
decrease the thickness of the wafers,
which would lower the amount of silicon
needed for production.
Whether through wasted materials or
increased use of silicon, traditional screen
printing drives up the cost of solar cell
manufacturing. If metallization could be
carried out without contact with the wafer,
cell breakage would be diminished or
eliminated and silicon solar cell wafers
could be produced much thinner, bringing
down the overall cost.
The latest solution to this problem is
digital inkjet printing. With digital inkjet
printing, there is no contact with the
wafer, decreasing breakage as well as
allowing for reduced wafer thickness. A
new technology developed by PV Nano
Cell promises to revolutionize the solar
cell production process and drastically
reduce costs.
PV Nano Cell’s Sicrys™ silver single-
crystal nanometric conductive inks will
accelerate the adoption of solar PV by
achieving significant cost reductions in
the production of silicon solar cells
through inkjet printing, enabling potential
cost reductions by 10 to 20 percent.
Additionally, Sicrys™ inks enable narrower
conductive patterns, which increases the
cell’s active area and allows more light to
penetrate the cell, as well as reduces costs
with the decreased amount of silver depos-
ited. The inks achieve higher conductivity
due to small particle size and uniform dis-
persions, allowing for increased efficiency.
Finally, the production process of the inks
is environmentally friendly, substantially
reducing hazardous waste effluents.
In addition to PV Nano Cell’s silver
inks, the company has also developed the
world’s first copper nanometric conductive
ink, which delivers the outstanding prop-
erties of the Sicrys™ silver ink with even
greater cost efficiency. Previously, compa-
nies had not been able to figure out how
to make copper a viable option, but the low
cost of copper has sparked an increase in
market interest, the average cost of silver
being around $450 per kilogram compared
to copper’s $4.3 per kilogram. The big-
gest obstacle has been the rapid oxidation
of copper particles, causing it to have a
short shelf life. Through PV Nano Cell’s
innovative and proprietary technology, the
company has developed a copper ink that
is very stable to oxidation. PV Nano Cell is
exploring routes to implement its copper
inks into the solar field also.
PV Nano Cell recently released its new
product, Sicrys™ I50TM-119, the latest in
its portfolio of conductive digital inks that
have the capability to significantly advance
printed electronic technologies. Sicrys™
I50TM-119, a conductive ink based on sin-
gle-crystal silver nanoparticles, has been
designed for inkjet printing and low tem-
perature sintering applications, which
allows for printing on flexible substrates,
such as plastic, fabric or even paper. The
ink, conveniently stored at room tempera-
ture, provides high silver loading, low vis-
cosity, long shelf life, reliable jetting and
good printability. Printed patterns offer a
unique combination of properties, includ-
ing low electrical resistivity, good adhe-
sion to a wide range of substrates, both
polymer films and Indium-tin-oxide (ITO)
films, and excellent durability in humid
and aqueous environments. Sicrys™
I50TM-119 shares in the properties intrin-
sic to the greater Sicrys™ ink family in
that they all support the implementation of
digital conductive printing in mass produc-
tion applications.
With all the cost reductions and
increased efficiencies Sicrys™ inks offer
the solar industry, the technology isn’t lim-
ited to the metallization of silicon solar
cells. Printed electronics is one of the
most flourishing sectors in the technology
world today. We are at an intersection
where all of the technology that has been
developed over the past 30 years has the
ability to make a giant leap forward. The
introduction of printed electronics has
changed the way we look at technology.
We will soon have the ability to connect
everything in our lives and to do it simply
and efficiently.
Specifically, 3D printing shows tre-
mendous promise. With 3D printing, elec-
PERSPECTIVE
UNLOCKING GROWTH IN SOLAR
BY FERNANDO DE LA VEGA,PH.D
Founder and CEO
PV Nano Cell
(continued page 20)
