Key takeaways:
Equipment flexibility is becoming essential as module designs evolve with BC, multi-cut, and 0BB concepts
Interconnection remains the most technology-sensitive step, requiring continuous adaptation to new cell architectures
Future equipment platforms are expected to support diverse requirements, including low-temperature processes for tandem technologies
The first TaiyangNews Market Survey on Module Production Equipment highlights how and what were once considered relatively simple assembly lines have evolved into a technology domain in their own right. While the survey does not cover the entire module production line, it focuses on 5 key equipment categories – interconnection, auto layup, auto bussing, lamination, and IV characterization. These together define the technological backbone of modern module manufacturing. Among these, interconnection, lamination, and IV testing remain the most critical processing steps, with auto-layup and auto-bussing closely aligned to the interconnection stage.
Across these equipment categories, a common theme of innovation is clearly adaptability. Beyond continuous improvements in throughput, uptime, and yield, equipment platforms are increasingly required to evolve alongside rapidly changing cell and module technologies. This is particularly evident in cell interconnection, arguably the most technology-sensitive station in module manufacturing. The growing industry’s focus on BC technology illustrates this well. While BC introduces far greater complexity at the cell level, it also requires meaningful adaptations to CTS tools, as both polarities are located on the rear side of the cell, which fundamentally alters established interconnection concepts. Reflecting this shift, most leading CTS platforms covered in the survey are already offered with BC-capable configurations.
Purely module-level innovations continue to exert equal pressure on equipment development. 0BB concepts, which gained significant attention over the past year, illustrate both the potential and the limitations of radical design change. While eliminating busbars is relatively straightforward at the cell level, reliably attaching interconnection wires to fine metallization fingers is far more demanding and places significant technical requirements on CTS tools. Several approaches have emerged, each with distinct trade-offs, and while some suppliers are prepared to offer upgrades, the cost and complexity remain non-trivial.
At the same time, multi-cut cell formats have gained momentum as a more pragmatic path to performance improvement. By dividing cells into smaller strips, multi-cut designs reduce electrical losses, enable lower busbar counts, and contribute to silver reduction, albeit to a far lesser extent than 0BB. Importantly, multi-cut formats are easier to implement at scale, and several CTS suppliers already offer retrofit solutions at a fraction of the cost of new equipment. With manufacturers continually seeking incremental performance gains, the industry may well see busbar counts fluctuate again in the future, reinforcing the need for flexible CTS platforms capable of accommodating such shifts.
Looking further ahead, tandem technologies represent the next major inflection point. While still largely at pilot scale, their main implication for module production equipment lies in the need for low-temperature interconnection processes. Solutions based on electrically conductive adhesives (ECA) are already available from several European suppliers, with Chinese vendors also entering the space. It is therefore reasonable to expect future CTS platforms to support a wide combination of requirements – from multi-cut and varying busbar counts to 0BB concepts and low-temperature processing – within a single machine architecture.
Beyond interconnection, auto-layup and auto-bussing are increasingly influenced by the growing diversity of module formats. Layup systems are being pushed to handle everything from fine cell strips to flexible and glass-free modules, as well as application-driven designs such as Agri-PV and BIPV. Auto-bussing, in particular, is emerging as a more dynamic area of development, driven by the electrical complexity introduced by multi-cut formats. Both processes appear well-positioned to evolve further, supported by modular system designs.
Lamination, by contrast, remains a comparatively mature process, with suppliers offering a wide range of configurations to meet different production needs – from single-stack to multi-stack systems and from single-stage to 3-stage designs. Incremental innovation continues, including early efforts to integrate advanced inspection and AI-based defect detection. For tandem modules, low-temperature lamination has shown encouraging early results, although further progress will depend heavily on developments in encapsulant materials.
Finally, sun simulators and IV characterization tools are less sensitive to changes in module layout and more closely linked to underlying cell technologies. These systems have long been optimized for high-capacitance technologies such as HJT, and the growing adoption of LED-based light engines, with their long lifetime and spectral flexibility, has further strengthened their relevance. In fact, tandem-capable characterization tools are already well established in laboratory environments, and supplying such systems has become a core business for several equipment vendors these days of overcapacity. Overall, the survey makes it clear that as PV technology cycles shorten and design pathways multiply, module production equipment has played a key role in both dramatic innovation in very large and very high-power modules and in faster yet still reliable processing. With flexibility at heart, these systems continue to evolve to meet the ever-changing requirements of the PV industry, now turning increasingly towards back contact cells and application-specific panels.
The text is the conclusion part of the TaiyangNews Market Survey on Solar Module Production Equipment 2026, which can be downloaded for free here.
