At TaiyangNews, we have been covering special production tools for advanced architectures through varioius reports, and this time for PERC. A common improvement seen across the board is the ability to process larger wafer formats, at least up to full-square 210 mm (G12), however, there have been several improvements that have brought cell efficiencies to levels above 23%. And while many companies are now looking into advanced cell technologies, PERC remains the work horse – and companies have been still expanding in the technology recently and are considering investing in further PERC capacities (let alone that this equipment can be used for TOPCon cells as well).
In our first report on cell processing equipment for PERC, we discuss the latest developments associated with the production tools used at the most important process stations of PERC cell manufacturing, namely:
We cover 8 different tool platforms and a total of 53 products from 17 companies in this survey (see table below)
In addition to summarizing the latest developments associated with key PERC production equipment, the survey also tabulates the important specifications of these production tools in a chronological order of cell processing (see tables in survey on p. 36 ff.)
A preliminary overview of the report results was presented at our Pushing PERC Cells To Its Limits Conference 2022, where several global market leaders provided overviews on technology and equipment solutions for processing PERC solar cells