What Is Photovoltaic Shingled Technology?

Shingled modules cut conventional cells into 5 or 6 pieces according to the number of main grids, stack and arrange each small piece, connect the small cells into strings with conductive glue, and then laminate them into modules after series and parallel layout.

The current cell layout of shingled modules mainly includes horizontal layout and vertical layout. Since Sunpower has a patent for vertical layout, other companies generally use horizontal layout.

Traditional crystalline silicon modules are connected by metal grid lines, and generally retain about 2~3 mm of cell spacing. Shingled modules cut traditional cells into 5-6 pieces, make the edge areas of the front and back surfaces of the cells into main grids, and use special conductive glue to interconnect the front surface edge of the previous cell and the back surface edge of the next cell, eliminating the need for ribbon welding. In a 60-type module with the same area, the shingled module can encapsulate 66~68 complete cells, which is an average of 13% more cells than the conventional packaging mode.

The shingled module eliminates the soldering tape, and the cells are connected by conductive glue, achieving 0 spacing between the cells, greatly reducing the blank space of the package, so that more cells can be packaged. Under the same module area, 60 cells can be packaged using the traditional packaging method, while 66 cells can be packaged using the shingled technology, which brings a 10% power increase.

The current power is reduced by cutting small pieces, and the elimination of soldering tape further reduces the resistance

The shingled module generally cuts the conventional size cells into 5 or 6 pieces, so that the current of a single cell is only 1/5 or 1/6 of the original, and the current loss is only 1/25 or 1/36 of the original. The cells are directly connected by conductive glue, which has lower resistance than the use of soldering tape and reduces power loss.

Since the shingled module has more cell strings, when shading occurs, the power generation loss and hot spot problems caused by shading can be effectively reduced.

Traditional module packaging technology uses solder ribbons as a connection tool for cells. Due to the different thermal expansion coefficients of silicon wafers and solder ribbons, silicon wafers that are too thin are prone to cracking. Shingled modules eliminate solder ribbons, and the cells are stacked and connected to each other, thus eliminating the influence of solder ribbon stress. In addition, the current mainstream method of shingling is to use conductive glue to achieve flexible connection, which can fully disperse stress, making it possible for shingled modules to use thinner silicon wafers.

Shingled modules are compatible with new technologies, support new technologies such as bifacial and double-glass, and are compatible with various battery technologies (PERC, HIT, Topcon).