Talisker - Solar Manufacturing Laser System
We just received this press release from Coherent Solar - a local company that we've written about before on Solar Power Authority when they were presenting at the Photovoltaics Summit 2008 in San Diego. This press release announces the details of a new laser system that they have developed to produce solar cells.
The Talisker system is a new ultra-short-pulse laser designed to produce high efficiency cell concepts. It is optimized for next-generation solar cell manufacturing and was designed as a drop-in turn-key solution to benefit both production line equipment suppliers and cell manufacturers.
Traditionally, laser scribers akin to the Talisker have been limited to short pulses of nanosecond duration and laser emission in the infra-red spectral region at 1064 nanometers. In order to optimize the scribing precision and minimize laser damage (or microcracking) within c-Si wafers however, an ultra-short pulse 'picosecond' duration would be required with ultra-short laser emission in the green or UV output level. The new Talisker laser brings these features to solar cell manufacturing for the first time ever!
The Talisker laser draws upon Coherent's established position as a leading supplier of short-pulse nanosecond AVIATM and PRISMATM lasers for existing c-Si and Thin-Film equipment tools (most of which run in 24 / 7 high-volume environments). The Talisker laser operates with similar output energies and speed (pulsing repetition-rate). But the key difference is the shorter pulse-width of the Talisker. This provides orders of magnitude higher peak intensities for precision scribing, and reduces vastly the thermal damage, sometimes seen with certain laser/material interaction.
The other strength of the Talisker laser is that it delivers different outputs in the infra-red, green, or UV spectral regions, by software control. UV and green wavelengths are essential for highly localized surface scribing on c-Si wafers, due to the very short penetration depths in the green and in particular UV at 355 nm. Combining ultra-short picosecond pulse operation with high-energy green / UV output wavelengths brings a new level of precision for many applications of lasers in high-efficiency c-Si cell manufacturing. One example is Selective Ablation of dielectric materials, where minimizing damage in the underlying bulk silicon is essential. Equally, within Thin-Film patterning, the ability to scribe layers with increasing precision is critical. An example here is laser scribing the P2 and P3 steps for CIGS.
The Talisker is a modular and scalable design based on fiber-laser technology. It operates off single-phase electricity and requires no external consumables. Complete with on-board diagnostics and remote Ethernet preventative-maintenance access, the Talisker can be easily integrated within inline turn-key tools. Benefiting from a hybrid fiber / free-space laser head design, the footprint measures less than 40 cm x 100 cm.
If you made it through that uber-technical press release congrats! It sounds like this tool will make solar cell research and manufacturing more efficient while keeping costs down with it's turnkey approach. Congrats Coherent! We'll be watching this company and posting updates as time goes on.
The Talisker system is a new ultra-short-pulse laser designed to produce high efficiency cell concepts. It is optimized for next-generation solar cell manufacturing and was designed as a drop-in turn-key solution to benefit both production line equipment suppliers and cell manufacturers.
Traditionally, laser scribers akin to the Talisker have been limited to short pulses of nanosecond duration and laser emission in the infra-red spectral region at 1064 nanometers. In order to optimize the scribing precision and minimize laser damage (or microcracking) within c-Si wafers however, an ultra-short pulse 'picosecond' duration would be required with ultra-short laser emission in the green or UV output level. The new Talisker laser brings these features to solar cell manufacturing for the first time ever!The Talisker laser draws upon Coherent's established position as a leading supplier of short-pulse nanosecond AVIATM and PRISMATM lasers for existing c-Si and Thin-Film equipment tools (most of which run in 24 / 7 high-volume environments). The Talisker laser operates with similar output energies and speed (pulsing repetition-rate). But the key difference is the shorter pulse-width of the Talisker. This provides orders of magnitude higher peak intensities for precision scribing, and reduces vastly the thermal damage, sometimes seen with certain laser/material interaction.
The other strength of the Talisker laser is that it delivers different outputs in the infra-red, green, or UV spectral regions, by software control. UV and green wavelengths are essential for highly localized surface scribing on c-Si wafers, due to the very short penetration depths in the green and in particular UV at 355 nm. Combining ultra-short picosecond pulse operation with high-energy green / UV output wavelengths brings a new level of precision for many applications of lasers in high-efficiency c-Si cell manufacturing. One example is Selective Ablation of dielectric materials, where minimizing damage in the underlying bulk silicon is essential. Equally, within Thin-Film patterning, the ability to scribe layers with increasing precision is critical. An example here is laser scribing the P2 and P3 steps for CIGS.
The Talisker is a modular and scalable design based on fiber-laser technology. It operates off single-phase electricity and requires no external consumables. Complete with on-board diagnostics and remote Ethernet preventative-maintenance access, the Talisker can be easily integrated within inline turn-key tools. Benefiting from a hybrid fiber / free-space laser head design, the footprint measures less than 40 cm x 100 cm.
If you made it through that uber-technical press release congrats! It sounds like this tool will make solar cell research and manufacturing more efficient while keeping costs down with it's turnkey approach. Congrats Coherent! We'll be watching this company and posting updates as time goes on.
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