Solar Wafer Sizes

Zhonghuan semiconductor another wafer giant unveiled its latest wafer product the new m12 size in august 2019.

Solar wafer sizes.

The wafer is the starting material for the production of crystalline solar cells which is only about 200 µm thick. The demand for wafers has exponentially increased over the past two decades due to the increase in the production and sale of pv systems smartphones and more. Seven solar manufacturers including tier 1 players have signed up to a joint initiative aiming to establish a new standard size for silicon wafers at 182mm x 182mm. The boule is then sliced with a wafer saw a type of wire saw and polished to form wafers.

In 1980 a 150 millimeter wafer might have sufficed for production needs but in 2017 the 450 millimeter wafer was introduced to meet increased demand for production. In recent months countless new wafer sizes have appeared on the market. In the early 2000s solar wafers were small around 125 mm 5 in in length. The common sizes of wafers today run from 150 millimeters to 450 millimeters.

Although m2 wafers are easy to integrate even larger wafer sizes are beginning to be used to obtain 400 w plus modules. In 2012 the m0 wafer 156 mm was introduced with the m2 wafer 156 75 mm eventually becoming the dominant size. Zhonghuan said a 60 cell pv module with this impressively enlarged wafer would easily boast module power output of more than 600 wp. Jinkosolar began producing modules with 158 75 mm side length in 2018 lg went even further with 161 75 mm in as early as 2017 whereas canadian solar pushed their multicrystalline technology with 166 75 mm side length cells.

Electronics use wafer sizes from 100 450 mm diameter. Although there have been many adjustments over the years the continuity has unfortunately disappeared. Why wafer size matter. It features a much bigger size of 210 mm in length and 295 mm on the diagonal.

The largest wafers made have a diameter of 450 mm but are not yet in general use. The size of wafers for photovoltaics is 100 200 mm square and the thickness is 100 500 μm. Then came the m4 wafer 161 75 mm around 2016 and the last few years have seen increased interest in even larger wafers with m6 166 mm m10 182 mm. In last weeks pv tech s techtalk series webinar with ja solar highlighted at length the various wafer sizes on the market and what these sizes meant to pv power plant projects as well as launch.

In inches this translates to about 5 9 to 18 inches. After 2010 156mm x 156mm wafers increasingly became the popular choice lower cost per watt for p type monocrystalline and multicrystalline wafer sizes.