Innovalight, Inc. has installed the world’s first high-throughputindustrial silicon-ink inkjet printing system at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA. The printing system was engineered and manufactured by OTB Solar in cooperation with Innovalight.

Using high precision touch-less inkjet printing of silicon-ink, Innovalight can halve the number of costly manufacturing steps required to produce high efficiency solar cells. In addition, the OTB printing system allows for high volume production of ultra-thin crystalline silicon solar cells with thicknesses as little as 50 microns. Current mass manufactured solar cells are almost four times thicker requiring more material and twice as many processing steps to convert into finished solar cells.

“In OTB Solar we found a strong partner with experience in both solar industry and inkjet printing technologies, “ said Conrad Burke, chief executive of Innovalight. “The OTB Solar team delivered a very sophisticated and powerful solution to Innovalight in record time.”

“Ink jet printing is becoming the next generation solar cell manufacturing technology,” said Chris Boomaars, head of OTB Solar’s New Business Development Division. “Using silicon-ink processing, Innovalight will dramatically improve the cost and efficiency of today’s silicon solar cells. This partnership is a great example of how we take solar cell production to the next level.”