PV-TEC – Photovoltaic Technology Evaluation Center

The PV-TEC – Photovoltaic Technology Evaluation Center at Fraunhofer ISE was established in 2005 to fill the gap between laboratory research and industrial application. State-of-the-art processing and characterization equipment is available in this large laboratory for the development of silicon solar cells.

PV-TEC focuses on the following core topics in the fields of production and measurement technology for crystalline silicon solar cells:

• Evaluation and development of production processes and processing technology componentsDevelopment and production of advanced industrial solar cell structures
• Characterization and development of materials and solar cells
• Further education and training for PV technology
• Process transfer with on-site support
• Economic cost studies

PV-TEC supports enterprises from all parts of the PV value chain, such as manufacturers of solar cells, modules, processing equipment and materials (silicon and processing materials).

In PV-TEC at Fraunhofer ISE, we are working on continuous further development and optimization of the standard process to produce silicon solar cells, and extend this with innovative processes such as diffusion and laser processes to create selective emitters or printing processes for fine linear contacts with contact widths of less than 30 μm. This ensures that a high-quality, continually optimized baseline process is available in PV-TEC, which forms the reference for process development. PV-TEC is also able to use partly processed solar cells in all industrially widespread formats and to evaluate selected processes and processing sequences.

Technical Facilities