The overall goal of the technology partnership between AT&S and Solland Solar is to jointly develop and put into industrial production the innovative back-contact module technology for Sunweb cells. The technology uses processes and materials that are standard in the printed circuit board industry but are not yet applied in photovoltaics.

In the first year of the partnership, Solland Solar’s basic idea of the Sunweb back-contacted solar cell was combined with new interconnection and switching technology from AT&S. All components and production processes have been developed accordingly for use in volume production.

The next phase in the project, the construction of a joint prototype production line at AT&S’s Leoben-Hinterberg plant in Austria, is scheduled for completion by the summer of 2010, and will incorporate the results achieved during the last year into the industrial production process.