Realizing the successful result of its most recent R&D effort, ASM Alternative Energy (ASM AE) announced today that it has commercialized its new solar cell printing technology, XtremePrintTM. The innovative and rapidly responsive XtremePrintTM system is a novel approach to high-speed cell topography accommodation and an ingenious solution to the limitations of conventional printing techniques.
A significant improvement over traditional pneumatic pressure squeegees, XtremePrint self-adjusts print force to compensate for variations in cell topography – all in real time. With this innovation, both single and dual print metallization processes can achieve high throughput rates, as full stencil to wafer gasketing at constant high speeds is possible, regardless of substrate surface variances. With traditional printing techniques, squeegee pressure and speed are generally pre-set; the only way to accommodate for non-uniform substrate surface height is to slow down the print speed to ensure good material transfer efficiency. XtremePrint technology overcomes this challenge, delivering self-regulating capability that adjusts for height variations at high speed.
