There is an urgent need to reduce the cost of HIT batteries, and silver-coated copper slurry is expected to accelerate mass production

Silver-coated copper paste is a highly conductive filler with excellent performance. By adjusting the doping ratio of silver to copper, the silver-coated copper paste retains the properties of the silver paste while preventing copper oxidation and the formation of complexes. Silver-coated copper slurry has the advantages of low curing temperature, fast curing speed, small particle size, and good fluidity. It has broad application prospects in photovoltaics, printing, aerospace, electronics, communications, semiconductors and other fields.

Heterojunction battery, also known as HIT battery, is a high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cell structure. HIT batteries have been on the market for a long time, but due to the high prices of raw materials and production equipment, the industrialization process of HIT batteries has been slow, and the industry has an urgent need to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Low-temperature slurry is a key material that determines the performance of HIT batteries. While maintaining the performance of low-temperature slurry, reducing its cost is one of the main ways to reduce the cost of HIT batteries.

In low-temperature silver paste, the cost of silver powder accounts for more than 95%. The global low-temperature silver paste production capacity is insufficient and the monopoly is strong, which is not enough to meet the growing market demand. Copper is cheap and has good thermal and electrical conductivity. Compared with silver, copper has obvious price advantages. The development of silver-coated copper slurry can not only meet the demand for low-temperature slurry, but also has a huge price competitive advantage. Under the background of dual carbon, the photovoltaic industry will usher in a period of rapid development. Silver-coated copper slurry will help the photovoltaic industry reduce costs and increase efficiency, and market attention will continue to increase.

According to the “2022-2026 China Silver-coated Copper Slurry Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report released by the Industrial Research Center 》 shows that benefiting from the update and iteration of silver-coated copper technology, silver-coated copper slurry is expected to accelerate the realization of mass production. At present, the global silver-clad copper slurry market layout companies include Japan DOWA, Japan KE, Suzhou Good Technetium, Dike Co., Ltd., Maiwei Co., Ltd., Boqian New Materials, Yinping Technology, etc. Among them, Japan DOWA and KE are the leading players in the silver-coated copper slurry market. Technology is at the global leading level.

At present, the silver-coated copper paste market is still in the early stages of development. With the increase in the number of companies involved, silver-coated copper paste is expected to accelerate the replacement of low-temperature silver paste. In China, Suzhou Goodtech is the first enterprise to realize the production of silver-coated copper slurry. Currently, Suzhou Goodtech’s silver-coated copper slurry has achieved mass production, and its downstream customers include Huasheng New Energy, King Kong Glass, etc. At the beginning of 2022, Suzhou Jingyin, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suzhou GoodTech, newly developed a silver-coated copper main grid slurry, which solved the adhesion and welding problems of silver-coated copper slurry.

Industry analysts said that silver-coated copper slurry has excellent comprehensive performance and obvious price competitiveness, which will help realize the reduction of photovoltaic industry. The efficiency is increased and the future application prospects are broad. The silver-coated copper slurry market is in the early stages of development, and Japanese company technology is at the world’s leading level. However, with the iteration of technology, my country has gradually realized the domestic production of silver-coated copper slurry. In the future, domestically produced silver-coated copper slurry will continue to be imported. Slurry replacement to accelerate the industrialization process of domestic HJT batteries