1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. Smit Oven Products - High Temperature solutions for Thin Film PV
S2S inline deposition / crystallization tool
6. Smit Ovens Products – Solutions for Thin Film PV and OPV
R2R systems for Drying, Curing and Sintering
7. “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: ≤ 150
o
C, 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
9. 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 250
o
C
Convective and radiant heating combination for excellent temperature stability
Current substrate width up to 410mm
System suitable for substrate speeds up to 30m/min
12. 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
o
C
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
13. 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
15. 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
16. 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
17. 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
18. 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
19. 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
20. Photonic Sintering for Printed Electronics
Sheet-to-Sheet and Roll-to-Roll Photonic Sintering of silver ink at 10
meters/minute
21. 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
23. 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 simulationThermal drying simulation
24. 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
25. 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
