By: Kun Li, William O’Neill, Jack Gabzdyl
Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge
SPI Lasers
The micro-machining of silicon components for use in the MEMS fabrication and microelectronics industry is well-established, and the demand for semiconductors started to recover after the 2008 downturn. Laser micro-drilled interconnect via holes is an application that has been applied in high volume manufacturing since 1995. In 2006, the laser held 70% of the microvia market because of its broad processing capabilities with a wide range of materials. Meanwhile the photovoltaic (PV) industry has experienced enormous growth over last few years, and it forecasts to grow to $100 billion between 2008 and 2013 (Lux Research, NY). As the most important material, c-Silicon has 77% of market share of world production of solar cells NanoMarket web (2009). Additionally, many novel high efficiency solar cell concepts (Emitter Wrap Through & Metal Wrap Through) are only feasible with laser technology, since it satisfies the requirement of drilling a few thousand holes (50-100µm in diameter) per second in c-Si.