After three years of intense research and development by hundreds of LONGi technical engineers, the company’s TaiRay silicon wafer products represent a significant advance in a field that has not seen significant innovation in almost ten years: silicon wafers.
In the silicon wafer industry, these devices are now considered benchmarks for technological improvement.
With major technological and financial advancements over the last ten years, photovoltaic power generation is now the fastest-growing renewable energy source in the world.
The photovoltaic industry has reached a new milestone, the “Terawatt Era.” The founder and president of LONGi, Li Zhenguo, said that the PV industry’s rapid growth is mostly attributable to the ongoing reduction of LCOE.
In the photovoltaic sector, cutting expenses and raising power generation efficiency are always the “First Principles.”
The PV industry’s explosive growth has aided in the relatively quick growth of silicon wafers.
Silicon wafers are an essential substrate for the production of solar cells; the quality of these wafers directly influences the conversion efficiency of the cells as well as the yield rate of subsequent solar cells.
But as production technology has advanced in recent years, silicon wafer homogeneity has grown more noticeable and silicon wafer performance enhancement has become slower.
LONGi insists on ongoing research and development to fulfill the demand for high-efficiency solar cells and further improve wafer performance in order to increase value for clients.
The full-platform support, high resistivity concentration, and strong gettering performance of the LONGi TaiRay silicon wafer are three noteworthy benefits, according to Wang Yichun, Director of the Product Research Department of the LONGi R&D Center.
Furthermore, LONGi TaiRay silicon wafer products have other potential benefits that need to be confirmed as they are a novel form of silicon wafer.
LONGi TaiRay silicon wafers as a product line accommodate various cell technologies and a range of segmented product combinations.
They include the common high-efficiency cell approaches seen in the market today, including HBC, TBC, HJT, and TOPCon. These wafers can satisfy a variety of customer thickness needs in addition to offering a range of common size criteria mandated by the market.
Conventionally, the longer the silicon ingot, the greater the variation in resistivity from the head to the tail.
The long-standing ideal in the monocrystalline field is to have longer silicon ingots with more concentrated resistivity distribution.
LONGi TaiRay silicon wafer product can achieve consistent resistivity distribution along the axis, eliminating the need to shorten the ingot length that should be prepared by the RCZ process.
With consistent ingot length, it is possible to reduce the resistivity ratio from the head to the tail of the crystal ingot from 3 times to within 1.5 times.
It will lead to a more concentrated cell efficiency distribution, so that there are more high-efficiency cells. And at the same time, cells’ EL illuminance issues on the module side can be well improved.
In addition, metal impurities in LONGi TaiRay silicon wafer product are easier to be gettered, which has more space for efficiency improvement than conventional wafers.
With the optimization of gettering process, the higher the gettering efficiency of LONGi TaiRay silicon wafers, the higher the corresponding cell efficiency.
Apart from the electrical performance benefits described above, LONGi TaiRay silicon wafers also possess more robust mechanical characteristics.
According to test results, LONGi’s TaiRay silicon wafers have a 16% higher bending strength than comparable conventional goods, and they also have better breakage resistance.
This is predicted to lower the breakage rate during the production process and is helpful for thinning the wafers.
LONGi has long relied on its monocrystalline silicon wafers, which have led the world in shipments for nine years running. Recent technological advancements in the silicon wafer industry include large-sizing, thinning, and monocrystallization, all of which LONGi has contributed to.
LONGi’s silicon wafer business unit has always adhered to the principle of putting customers first, insisting on leading standards, reliable quality, and excellent product and service experiences, which has earned the trust of its customers.
According to Hao Kai, President of LONGi Wafer Business Unit, there is a saying among LONGi’s customers: “In the PV industry, there are two kinds of silicon wafers: one is LONGi’s silicon wafer, and the other is all the rest.”
Though customers have praised “LONGi silicon wafers,” LONGi is not satisfied and is dedicated to pursuing perfection in product performance through continuous improvement.
Li Zhenguo declared, “We will persist in upholding innovation-driven development and technical leadership, focus resources, and keep delving deeply into the PV field.
To contribute to the development of a new caliber of productive force in the photovoltaic industry, we will consistently introduce more dependable and efficient goods.
Source LONGi
