HighLine Technology GmbH, a Germany based high precision printing technology company for semiconductor industry, has raised €1.2 million ($1.42 million) as seed financing contributed equally from High-Tech Grunderfonds (HTGF) and Fraunhofer Technologie Transferfonds GmbH (FTTF).
Fraunhofer ISE introduced HighLine as its spin-off to commercialize contactless solar cell dispensing printing process in September 2020, which can also be deployed for other production industries (see Fraunhofer ISE Spin-Off For Solar Cell Production).
HighLine offers parallel dispensing print heads that can metallize the surface of the solar cell in one crossing, and added that "the current printing speed of 500mm/s (LT paste for HJT) enables a higher throughput than with established competitive processes'. Homogenity of the tiny contact fingers leads to more than 20% silver being saved while increasing the efficiency of the solar cell by reducing shadowing losses.
"For quick market entry, HighLine has developed a solution for integration into industrial screen printing platforms – the "cuckoo". This means that existing production lines of established system manufacturers can be equipped with the new printing technology within short time," explained the start-up. "A demonstrator can currently be seen in the PV-TEC laboratory of Fraunhofer ISE."
It plans to use the financing to introduce the technology to the PV market via a field test in 2021. "This means that the market entry takes place in line with the current revival of the PV industry in Europe," said Co-Founder and Managing Director of HighLine, Marian Breitenbücher.
The current focus of HighLine is on solar cells where it claims its parallel dispensing technology enables significant process optimization in terms of silver consumption, cell and module efficiency and production throughput.
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