Module integration of solar cells with diverse metallization schemes enabled by SmartWire Connection Technology

SmartWire Connection Technology (SWCT) developed by Meyer Burger uses multiple thin copper wires with alloy coating to interconnect solar cells. These thin copper wires separate a 156 mm solar cell into unit cells, which typically have ∼4 mm finger length instead of 26 mm as in the case of three busbar solar cells, thereby substantially reduce the requirement of finger line conductivity. Such a low requirement of finger conductivity has enabled diverse metallization schemes to be successfully applied to many cell designs to reduce silver consumption and to be integrated into modules easily. In this paper, we present the module integration results of silicon heterojunction solar cells using various metallization schemes developed within Meyer Burger group, including fine line silver screen printing down to 80 mg per 6 inch bifacial cell, inkjet direct silver printing down to 10 mg per 6 inch monofacial cell, inkjet masking and nickel/copper plating to finger thickness as low as 1 µm on 6 inch monofacial cell. We demonstrate the high durability of these modules with extensive thermal cycling tests.