Applied Materials has announced its Baccini Esatto technology, a multi-step screen printing capability designed to increase the efficiency of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. The technology enables the fabrication of advanced contact structures to increase the efficiency of c-Si solar cells.

The Baccini Esatto technology provides customers with an upgrade to their current and future Baccini back-end systems with reliability and high repeatability, the company said. It allows multiple layers of different materials to be overlaid with better than ±15micron repeatability.

The technology was designed to enable advanced contact formation techniques such as double-printed frontside metal lines and the multiple process flows required to create selective emitter structures. The first application in production is for double-printed metal lines, enabling manufacturers to print taller, narrower grid lines, thus reducing the shadowing effect caused by wide grid lines while improving electrical conductivity, the company said.