JPSA Enters Thin Film Photo-Voltaic Scribing Market
June 26, 2008
Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, J. P. Sercel Associates (JPSA) has begun delivery of laser workstations for processing solar thin film photovoltaic (PV) products, an application well suited to the company’s laser scribing technology. JPSA’s newly-introduced PV-5000 is a laser workstation dedicated to PV thin film solar scribing. The company will sell these systems to PV product manufacturers globally, with the first system deliveries scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. This rapidly-growing and vital thin film PV market is a direct result of the increasing demand for clean energy PV products. JPSA’s PV-5000 systems have the ability to laser machine high-efficiency solar thin film panels that cost significantly less to manufacture than current silicon-based PV panels.
In making the announcement, Jeffrey Sercel, CEO, said “JPSA has long been in the forefront of developing processes and systems that advance ‘greener’ technologies. We have worked constantly to improve the efficiency as well as the yields of products such as LEDs and photovoltaics. In this instance, new developments in PV film technology, coupled with the higher accuracy of laser scribing and edge deletion, have increased the electrical output of these new types of solar cells. This is important because their lower comparative cost to silicon-based solar cells, and the ability to manufacture them in larger panels, make them more accessible to an increasingly energy-hungry world.”
The increasing cost of silicon, Sercel adds, has spawned a number of new ventures exploiting thin film approaches for manufacturing photo-voltaic panels. Thin film scribing is an emerging PV manufacturing method that JPSA, with its well-developed wafer scribing business and technologies, is ideally suited to enter. JPSA has consistently been on the leading edge of laser scribing and edge deletion technology with its high-efficiency LED scribing systems. JPSA’s ChromaDice™ systems produce high-efficiency LEDs and provide higher yields per wafer than any other LED wafer scriber available.
JPSA’s PV-5000 Thin Film PV Scribing System is based on the successful ChromaDice™ DPSS laser platform, and is designed for isolation and series interconnection of thin film solar cells. JPSA laser systems employ high peak power, short pulsed Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) laser sources to rapidly, selectively and accurately remove a wide range of thin films from large glass, metal or polymer substrates. A variety of wavelengths suitable for different layer materials are available including 1064nm, 532nm, 355nm and 266nm. These systems used advanced laser technology scribing to rapidly and accurately produce fine scribed lines with virtually no Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) and >30MOhm isolation.
JPSA products and services include UV excimer, DPSS and ultra-fast laser micromachining systems, UV and VUV laser beam delivery systems, laser materials processing development, optical damage testing, and excimer laser refurbishment services. JPSA operates a high-performance laser job shop as well as a systems engineering and manufacturing business.For more information, visit www.jpsalaser.com, or contact the company at 220 Hackett Hill Road, Manchester, NH, 03102 USA; Tel. 603.518.3200, fax 603.518.3298.
Laser Micromachining
JPSA Laser provides excimer, Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS), and Ultrafast laser micromachining solutions for:
- Thin Film PV Patterning
- Laser Scribing
- LED Lift-Off (LLO)
- Advanced Laser Lift-Off
- Metal Dicing
- Laser Dicing
- Via Drilling
- Silicon Edge Isolation
- Ink-Jet Nozzles
- Microfluidic Devices
- Micro Vias
- Annealing and Doping
- Parylene Ablation
- 3D Micro Features
- Concentrator Photovoltaics