Low temperature solutions for sheet-to-sheet and roll-to-roll applications

SMIT Ovens BV

Ekkersrijt 4302 5692 DH SON

The Netherlands

Tel: +31 499 49.45.49

Fax: +31 499 49.45.45

Company introduction General

Founded in 1936 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Today, our headquarters are in Eindhoven

Background in display and glass

Including large area glass treatment

High temperature glass treatment (T>Tg)

Residual stress / deformation

Cost effective mass production

Continuous innovation with focus on

Yield improvement

Cost reduction

Development partner for various TF PV panel manufacturers

Company introduction Solar market position

Leading position in thermal equipment for TF solar panel production

Installed base of more than 115 systems in total solar market

Supplied for > 4,3 GWp annual production capacity

Development partner and reliable supplier to all major TFPV manufacturers

Company introduction R&D Partners

Smit Ovens is active member of Solliance to support innovation for our customers

R&D partners: ECN, TNO, imec, Holst Centre, TU/e, FZ Jülich

Access to R&D facilities:

> 200 researchers on Thin Film PV, OPV and Printed Electronics

CIGS development/demo line @ 30 x 30 cm

R2R Organic PV line

Complete characterization and measurement facilities

Smit Oven Products - High Temperature solutions for Thin Film PV S2S inline deposition / crystallization tool

Smit Ovens Products – Solutions for Thin Film PV and OPV R2R systems for Drying, Curing and Sintering

“Low” temperature processes

Drying, curing, annealing and sintering

“Low” temperature processing is becoming essential for fast growing industries and emerging markets

The general process requirement for these

applications are comparable

Low process temperatures: ≤ 150oC, foil compatible

Short process time: <(<) 1 min, R2R compatible

Process compatible with device stack

The high-tech solutions need to be tailored to meet the requirements and the process scale S2S/R2R

Convective low temperature solutions

R2R Dryer Manufactured for R&D and production scale

Systems have been developed for the drying and curing of solvent containing layers on metal and plastic substrates for OPV and Printed Electronics

The features of the dryers include:

Modular design to satisfy drying length requirements

High volumetric flowrate to maintain low vapor level

Clean room compatible

Run under air or inert atmosphere

A high heat transfer coefficient in the web direction

Air flow cross width variation is <1%

Temperature range up to 250oC

Convective and radiant heating combination for excellent temperature stability

Current substrate width up to 410mm

System suitable for substrate speeds up to 30m/min

Thermal performance

Excellent temperature controllability for process reproducibility (±0.2K)

Tolerance from set value ±1K

Tunable frequency parameter to achieve a heat transfer coefficient of at least 30 W/m2K

Cleanroom class

Particle contamination significantly decreases product performance

HEPA filtered refreshment air supply to system

Internal recirculation through HEPA filter provides low particulate count, better than class 100

Z04

Z10

Systems developed for the drying and curing of coatings on large area glass or plastic sheets

The capabilities of the dryers include: Temperature range up to 400

oC

Substrate dimensions

Maximum 2250mm x 3210mm

Minimum 400mm x 400mm

System suitable for substrate speeds up to 7m/min

High volumetric flowrate to maintain low vapor level

Run under air atmosphere

S2S Dryer Manufactured for R&D and production scale

Drying of large area glass

Effective convective heating of large area glass

Temperature uniformity at soak of ±1K

High volumetric refreshment flowrate for solvent vapor management

Photonic solutions

Working principle

Based on the contrast in absorption between the different materials

Light is selectively absorbed in the specific material

Pulsed light instead of continuous radiation prevents excessive heating

Applicable for drying, curing, annealing and sintering

Photonic process technology applied in the printed electronics

Sintering of Silver nanoparticle inks

Short light pulses instead of continuous illumination

Very high ink temperatures for very short times

Limited heat flow into the substrate, thus no foil

damage/deformation

Adjust intensity, flashing frequency and pulse

duration to the ink-substrate

By pulsing the light, the threshold temperature to sinter silver nanoparticles is reached

Working principle

Sintering for Printed Electronics

Sintering is achieved by both presented technologies

Depending on the process and application one or a combination can be selected:

Standard approach: Thermal sintering - (10 % bulk Ag) after 10 min

Faster alternative: Photonic sintering - (12 % bulk Ag) after < 10 s

Evolution on nanoparticle scale

1. Solvent evaporation & removal of organic material

2. Densificantion by sintering

2-stage Photonic Flash sintering

Photonic binding/soldering SMT-components

Selective Soldering

Solder paste on Ag printed tracks on PET foil 125µm

Dummy Chip 20 microns thick bonded on the silver track

chip size of 0.9x0.9mm²

Large Area Photonic Flash Soldering of Thin Chips on Flex Foils for Flexible Electronic Systems: In-Situ Temperature Measurements and Thermal Modelling.

Daan A. van den Ende, Rob Hendriks, Romain Cauchois, Wilhelm A. Groen

Photonic Flash Soldering of Thin Chips and SMD Components on Foils for Flexible Electronics

Daan A. van den Ende, Rob Hendriks, Romain Cauchois, R.H.L. Kusters, Maarten Cauwe, W.A. Groen, Jeroen van den Brand

Process

Sequence program:

50 burst of 1pulse at 7.142Hz at intensity of 40%

5 burst of 3pulse at 7.142Hz at intensity of 50%

Total time ~8 sec

Oven baseline requires 6 minutes

Photonic binding/soldering SMT-components

Photonic Sintering for Printed Electronics

Sheet-to-Sheet and Roll-to-Roll Photonic Sintering of silver ink at 10 meters/minute

Photonic process solutions

Versatile system is suitable and easily modified for sheet-to-sheet or roll-to-roll

Near-continuous Xenon spectrum ranging from 400 – 1000nm

Selective treatment of a width range of materials and applications (multi-layer)

Reflector design to allow optimum use of lamp energy

Your Smit Ovens solution

Simulations of process parameters and the required thermal profile

Both the convectional and photonic mechanisms are well understood

In house established thermal models have been developed for simulating evaporation behaviour under drying or sintering conditions

Modelling

Photonic sintering simulation Thermal drying simulation

Smit Ovens provides ...

Accurate temperature control for a reliable production

Freedom of process tuning to fully optimize your process

Elegant and easy to use software to control all the parameters

Engineering support by modelling and simulation to provide important process insights

Commercial S2S and R2R platforms which are in different stages of development suitable to R&D and production scale

Engineering and equipment modification for improving performance of existing equipment

Proven technology with research and industrial partners showing excellent results on flexible foils

Let Smit Ovens design, build and deliver

systems for your process and application

Visit or contact Smit Ovens at 4302 Ekkersrijt

5692 Son, The Netherlands

+ 31 499494544

www.smitovens.com

Thank you for your attention