DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM), part of DuPont Electronic Technologies, will be presenting new research findings on “Advanced Screen Printable Thin Film Photovoltaic Front-Side Silver Conductor Compositions,” at the IDTechEx Photovoltaics beyond Conventional Silicon Europe Conference and Exhibition, which is co-located with Printed Electronics Europe in Dresden, Germany, April 7-8, 2009.

MCM will also highlight its broad and growing portfolio of customizable, functional conductive inks for printed electronics, and DuPont Solamet photovoltaic metallizations for photovoltaic (PV) solar energy, at stand 32.

“Thin film photovoltaics is a key emerging market that we expect will reach up to 1.5 gigawatts in 2009, with an increasing share of flexible and rigid designs utilizing front side metallization inks such as Solamet,” said Dr. Kerry Adams, European segment manager, thin film photovoltaics – DuPont Microcircuit Materials. “DuPont is accelerating the development of front side materials designed to enable improved efficiency in both amorphous silicon and CIGS thin film PV modules, by leveraging our experience in the development of metallization inks used in both printed electronics and photovoltaics. We’re putting that science to work to create a new technology platform with Solamet PV410 metallization ink, and we’re pleased to share at this conference the new insights it has given us. We expect further advancements as the PV410 technology continues to evolve to benefit our thin film PV customers.”

DuPont MCM’s development objective was to achieve a direct improvement in thin film solar cell efficiency by producing Solamet silver ink formulations that would reduce series resistance losses. Crucial factors in the development included high conductivity, low contact resistance, good adhesion to transparent conductive oxides and long-term reliability.

The compositions are screen printable for high-volume production with ink rheology adaptable to rotary printing; and utilize a versatile chemistry platform which can be extended to other thin film technologies such as dye sensitized cells (DSC), organic and heterojunction cells.

Vince Arancio, technical specialist, DuPont Microcircuit Materials, will present his findings in a paper titled, “Advanced Screen Printable Thin Film Photovoltaic Front-Side Silver Conductor Compositions.” A copy of the presentation will be available from the DuPont Microcircuit Materials website immediately following the event.

With DuPont MCM’s experience in low-temperature ink development, it is uniquely positioned to help customers create solutions for a variety of existing and new applications. MCM’s range of functional low-temperature curing inks for thin-film PV and other printed electronics applications employ various advanced resin chemistries enabling a variety of adhesion, flex and thermal properties and compatibility with a broad range of substrates and processing techniques. The active phase of each ink is designed with each specific end application in mind, to ensure the correct conductive, resistive or dielectric properties.