• JA Solar has signed an agreement with Shin-Etsu Chemical of Japan to acquire IP rights for Ga-doped silicon wafers
  • The Chinese company will use this technology to use in its solar cell manufacturing process with an aim to improve the performance of its solar cells and modules
  • JA Solar believes the decision to use Ga-doped silicon wafer technology can effectively mitigate the problem of LID that occurs with boron doped p-type silicon wafers
  • The agreement with Shin-Etsu grants JA Solar IP rights over the technology in all various nations the patent covers

Chinese solar module company JA Solar Co., Ltd. has secured intellectual property (IP) rights from Shin-Etsu Chemical of Japan to use the latter’s Ga-doped silicon wafer technology for solar cell applications. Through this agreement, JA Solar hopes to improve the performance of its solar cells and modules.

“We deeply appreciate Shin-Etsu Chemical granting JA Solar their IP rights of Ga-doped crystalline silicon technology, which is an important step for JA Solar in introducing advanced technology and supporting the industry’s intellectual property protection,” said JA Solar Chairman of Board of Directors, Jin Baofang.

These Ga-doped silicon wafers are different from boron doped p-type silicon wafers that suffer from light induced degradation (LID) upon initial light illumination which JA Solar explains gets worse with the adoption of PERC cell structure. It believes Ga-doped silicon wafers can effectively mitigate the problem to assure more stable and better performance of PV modules assembled with p-type silicon wafer based solar cells.

A company that holds patents on doping Ga in silicon crystals and using such p-type crystalline silicon wafers to make solar cells, Shin-Etsu Chemical has granted JA Solar IP rights over the technology in various nations and regions the patents covers.