Infrared Power

Tailored Heating - Solar and Semiconductor Industry

Solar cell manufacturing

In solar cell manufacturing, a fast firing step is required for sintering of printed silver metallization lines on the solar cells. It has been demonstrated that this process can be realized by VCSEL heating with very good results. This may lead to improved process control and potentially lower production spread, new processing options, new compact machine concepts, energy saving and lower maintenance cost.

Successful VCSEL system integration in a fast firing line has been realized to test the feasibility and benchmark solar cell experiments have been done with encouraging results. An ultra-fast temperature rise (1050 K/s) was confirmed experimentally and the processed initial solar cells yielded already benchmark efficiency.

The principle can be used in other thick-film processes e.g. for passive components, passive electronic circuits and printed electronics.

Rapid thermal processing of Si-Wafers

VCSEL laser modules are powerful enough to realize rapid heating of large Si-wafers used in semiconductor manufacturing. For standard 300mm wafers, heating rates of 500 K/s or more are possible. At the same time, the local control of individual VCSEL emitters enables local control of the heating profile during processing, such that extremely good temperature homogeneity can be achieved.