Atlanta, GA -- With every passing year and every solar exhibition the PV industry edges closer towards grid parity. During this year's Intersolar show there was much focus on efficiency, which is recognized by most as the key driver towards reaching the parity goal. Incremental material cost reductions and savings gained through economies of scale have mostly been realized by now. The need for increasing cell efficiency is driving novel cell architectures, requiring more sophisticated manufacturing methods and innovative equipment. ASYS Solar is working in step with the advancing cell technology, bringing new equipment solutions to the market. These include advanced vision for pattern recognition and alignment to existing cell structures such as Selective Emitter, MWT and EWT; Laser Isolation of back-side contacts, Laser drilling for MWT and EWT as well as advanced metallization techniques for these structures.

The highly accurate and fast XS2 screen printer featured by ASYS at Intersolar was well received by the show visitors, who were impressed by its small footprint and large range of capabilities. The printer boasts repeat accuracy of ± 12,5 ìm @ 6 Sigma, thanks to its patented in-table alignment camera system, and 2.2sec cycle times resulting in gross throughput of 1,600cph. Together with the company’s offering of loading/unloading units, post print and micro crack inspection, screen printers, post print inspection, dryers, laser edge isolation, cell testers and sorters, the screen printers form the basis for single, dual and triple lane production lines with a throughput of up to 4,600 cells/hour with the lowest breakage rate in the industry, highest up-time and more than 7.5 GW of installed production capacity worldwide, ASYS is the preferred partner for cell manufacturers worldwide.