Picosecond lasers offer high-quality processing with almost no heat-affected zone and are ideal for high-precision processing of various materials, including solar panels. With increasing demand for advanced equipment, picosecond lasers are expected to play an increasingly important role in solar panel manufacturing.

Solar spacecraft, space stations, and artificial satellites run with electricity for days, months, or even over a decade. These devices require a significant amount of electrical energy, but where does it come from? The answer is through solar panels that convert photon energy into electrical energy.



Solar panels are widely used not only in aerospace but also in civilian applications. They come in different types, such as silicon solar cells, nanocrystalline solar cells, organic solar cells, and multi-component thin-film cells. As solar panel processing requires high precision and long lifespan, the demand for advanced equipment is increasing.



Traditional methods for processing solar panels involve mechanical cutting, which is complex and results in rough edges and wide dead zones. Such manufacturing precision cannot meet the high-precision requirements of current complex materials. Picosecond laser equipment has excellent processing capabilities and has a high market potential in solar panel processing.



Industrial-grade picosecond laser equipment has an ultra-short pulse width (<10ps), high peak power, and a laser output wavelength of 1064nm. The narrower the pulse width and the higher the peak power density of the laser used in processing, the more effective it is in reducing the formation of heat-affected zones and recast layers. Tests show that for most materials, when the laser pulse width is around 10ps, there is almost no heat transferred to the surrounding area during processing, resulting in high-quality processing similar to that of femtosecond lasers, achieving almost no heat-affected zone cold processing.



Picosecond lasers are also suitable for processing CIGS thin-film solar cells. In the production of CIGS thin-film solar cells, Mo molybdenum is used as a support layer, which is deposited by DC magnetron sputtering. The CIGS film is grown using a three-step co-evaporation process, followed by depositing CdS film using a water bath method and then depositing a double-layer ZnO film using sputtering. Ni/AL electrodes are prepared using electron beam evaporation, and finally, an MgF2 anti-reflection film is applied on top. After each layer of film is deposited, laser etching is required to connect the cells in series.