To meet today's intense pricing pressure, solar cell manufacturers have slimmed their cells down to mere microns to save on material costs.
Now, as pressure continues to mount, they are finding that they have no silicone left to cut, and so they have turned instead to their manufacturing processes to find new ways to increase efficiency and bring these production costs down just a little more.
In the solar industry, this means quality assurance measures in the printing of contact lines -- the most expensive and critical element of the process.
A recent partnership between Germany's ASYS Automation Systems and Zeta Instruments highlights this growing trend.
