Although m2 wafers are easy to integrate even larger wafer sizes are beginning to be used to obtain 400 w plus modules.
M4 solar wafer size.
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.
Solar wafer m12 g12 m10 m9 m6 g1 m4 m2 feb 23 2020 the larger the size the higher the power and the lower the cost leading the silicon industry to continue to introduce large size wafers from m2 m4 g1 m6 to m12 g12.
This was the driver for all cell producers to switch to the then larger wafer size after 2010 156mm x 156mm wafers increasingly became the popular choice lower cost per watt for p type mono.
But now it appears a new milestone moment has arrived.
It should be noted that different companies have different patented and trade secret processes for each of these steps but the steps remain the same.
This time longi set the standard wafer size at 166mm and publicized the price of m6 mono wafers rmb 3 47 per piece us 0 49 showing its intention to the world for a powerful push of m6.
M4 wafers make better use of the ingot than m2 wafers help increase module power by 20 to 25 watts and thus support material and labor cost reduction during installation maximum output.
This is the generalized method used based on a number of sources.
The process of manufacturing solar cells from single crystal p type silicon wafers is detailed below.
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.
At that time our taiwanese cell manufacturer went straight from m2 to the m4 with a size of 161 7 mm in order to only make necessary investment purchases once together with the multi busbar variant.
However improvements in cell efficiency appear to have hit a bottleneck making wafer size a hot topic among manufacturers once again.
Why wafer size matter.
Wafer sizes have increased in small incremental ways over the last seven years from m1 156 75 205 mm diagonal length to m2 156 75 210 mm and to m4 161 7 211 mm.
