TEL Solar

TEL Solar is a manufacturer of production equipment for the manufacturing of thin-film silicon solar modules.

TEL Solar owns the patent for the double junction thin film silicon technology from 1993. The two junctions consist of the amorphous silicon (a-Si) top cell and the microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si) bottom cell. Micromorph is the brand name describing the amorphous/microcrystalline silicon tamdem cell. TEL Solar was the first to integrate boron doped zinc oxyde deposited by low pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) as the Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) layer, and the first to commercialize the high-efficiency Micromorph process. The majority of its customers upgraded from amorphous single junction to micromorph (double junction) technology.

TEL Solar is headquartered in Switzerland and has about 650 employees. The installed production capacity at its customer sites cumulates to 1 Giga Watt ( 1,000 MW). TEL Solar maintains sales and service centers in the USA, Europe, China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Japan.

Market segment

TEL Solar provides thin film silicon PV module production equipment, end-to-end fabrication lines, process technology and services. Their products enable automated mass production of large-area, thin-film silicon solar modules.

Grid parity

TEL Solar is currently offering equipment that produce PV panels that are 1.4 square meters in size, have a module efficiency of 10.8%, and a module production cost of US$0.50/Watt. It is notable that TEL Solar has doubled the annual output of its standard manufacturing line and reduced the expected cost of ownership by over 50% over the past three years. These improvements put TEL Solars customers in a position to offer panels at a price that enable solar energy to be sold at prices that are comparable with retail electricity rates in regions like Southern Europe or California by 2012.

End-to-end manufacturing lines

TEL Solars fully automated ThinFab 140 is the latest generation in thin-film solar module manufacturing lines with an annual production capacity of 140 MW. It includes three key components:

1. TCO for depositing transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layers for front and back contacts
2. KAI MT for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to build the amorphous and microcrystalline photosensitive layers and
3. LSS for laser patterning to produce serially connected cells.

In addition, TEL Solar says it is the only supplier of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) technology with haze on demand. This proprietary effect enables the trapping of light in the photovoltaic thin-film, maximizing conversion efficiency. These unique capabilities enhance the performance of the solar modules and directly reduce the cost-per-watt peak.

Form factor

The company’s 1.4 m² substrates are currently the leading format for equipping silicon thin-film solar-module production facilities, and have become the industry standard through numerous installations. Not only are they the only substrates available for wide-scale implementation today, but also this format has other advantages over larger substrates including higher efficiency, lower cost of ownership per watt, lower shipment costs, and ease of installation.

Micromorph module technology

The amorphous/microcrystalline design enables module performance by capturing up to 50% more sunlight than conventional thin film silicon PV modules. The micromorph stacked-cell concept was pioneered and patented at the Institute of Microtechnology (IMT) of the Neuchâtel University in Switzerland, and later licensed to TEL Solar since 2003. A new world record PV module based on the micromorph concept with 12.24% efficiency was independently certified in July 2014^[1]

End-to-end module factory

TEL Solar offers its customers a complete manufacturing solution for thin film silicon, including the PECVD equipment for depositing the silicon layers, the LPCVD equipment to deposit thin film zinc oxide on the front and back of the silicon layers, the advanced laser systems to scribe cell lines and the equipment to encapsulate the active layers to form the finished module.

See also

• Amorphous silicon
• Crystalline silicon
• KAI
• Low-cost solar cell
• Tokyo Electron
• Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD)

References

External links