The european demand in terms of solar cells is constantly increasing these last few years. In the meantime, laser technology progressively spreads in the manufacturing steps of photovoltaic cells with a growth of around 48% since 2002.
Lasers that are commonly used for these processes are operating in the typical range of a few tens of nanoseconds. However, when high energy pulses with relatively long pulse lengths (over one nanosecond) interact with a material, a heat wave propagates in the material, causing heat affected zones (or HAZ): microcracks, oxidizations, melting. The cell efficiency is then highly reduced.
However a manufacturing process based on ultra-short pulses is the best solution to prevent from collateral damages in the material.
The Micromachining department of Lasea is at your disposal to determine the optimum machining conditions to manufacture or process your photovoltaic cells, and also to provide your machining machines, based on ultra-short pulse laser sources.