Solar energy is already an indispensable energy-saving and energy-saving energy source in modern times. The current status of solar cell manufacturing equipment and its development prospects will take you from international to domestic analysis.

Take the largest, most used and most critical crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturing equipment in the market: European equipment manufacturers represented by Germany and Italy, and Japanese equipment manufacturers represent the highest level of technology in the world today. Features high productivity, high degree of automation and suitable for larger and larger, from the initial 103mm × 103mm, 125mm × 125mm square silicon wafer to the current mainstream 156mm × 156mm square silicon wafer, and the next two years 210mm × 120mm square silicon wafer The wafer process is getting thinner and thinner 300μm, 270μm, 210μm, 180μm. In particular, Germany has successfully introduced fully automated production line equipment for the production of 210mm × 210mm square silicon wafers representing the most advanced level in the world and requiring almost no human intervention. Today's international large-scale production line has grown from a few megawatts per line five years ago to 25 megawatts, MW, and even a single unit with a capacity of 50 MW. For example, a large automatic flat-plate PECVD produced by a German company. device.

China's research on solar cells started in 1958. At the end of the 80s of the last century, many solar cell production lines were introduced in China, which increased the production capacity of solar cells in China from a few hundred kilowatts of the original three small factories to six. The plant's 4.5MW, this capacity has continued until 2002, the output is only about 2MW. In 2005, the total production of solar cells in China reached 139MW, a sharp increase of 179 compared with 2004.

It is expected that there will still be rapid growth in 2006. In 2005, the sales volume of solar modules in China reached 375MW, an increase of 136 on the basis of an increase of 300 in 2004.

It is expected that there will still be a large increase in 2006. Corresponding to the substantial increase in the production of solar cells and modules, China's solar cell equipment market has also grown at a high speed. Since 2003, China has entered a new standard solar cell production line in just two years as of December 2005, 25MW/ Article, 17 production capacity is close to 450MW, which is about 100 times of the production capacity in 2002. According to the average investment of 50 million yuan per line equipment at that time, the equipment market is as high as 850 million yuan, if it is used to solve the silicon shortage. The total market for investment in materials manufacturing equipment such as polysilicon ingot furnaces, single crystal furnaces, cutting machines, wire saws, etc. will exceed 1.2 billion yuan. About one-third of the market is occupied by domestic equipment for several years. The state saved about 100 million US dollars in foreign exchange, saving nearly 800 million yuan for users. In 2005, it sold about 330 sets of related equipment and sales of nearly 250 million yuan. Some equipment such as single crystal furnaces are exported to Japan and other markets.

The development of solar cell manufacturing equipment is to improve the final product quality, photoelectric conversion efficiency and overall production efficiency of the battery, while reducing production costs. Therefore, the technical development of future equipment will always be carried out in the following aspects:
1. Improve the level of single machine automation, increase batch loading, and improve single machine production efficiency.
2. Automatic transfer of robots between devices, online detection, improve the production efficiency of the whole line, reduce manual intervention and reduce the fragmentation rate.
3. Materialize more advanced technology into equipment: further improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency of solar cells and reduce the cost per watt.
4. Further development is suitable for large size: from the initial application of 103mm × 103mm, 125mm × 125mm square silicon wafer to the current mainstream 156mm × 156mm square silicon wafer, and the future 210mm × 210mm square silicon wafer, etc., thin silicon wafer Process technology equipment: 300 μm, 270 μm, 240 μm, 210 μm, 180 μm, 150 μm, and the like.

At present, the thickness of mainstream silicon wafers is 210μm-240μm to save silicon materials and reduce costs.