FOM Technologies lab- and pilot-scale slot-die coating tools make it easy to develop and demonstrate scalable manufacturing of printed and flexible PV devices, without the burden of bulky, conventional slot-die coating lines. Our tools mimic industrial roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet coating equipment, while fitting into a convenient benchtop form factor and requiring just a few milliliters of solution to begin coating.

Our roll-based tools enable simple process development on flexible substrates, while our sheet-based tools offer excellent coating control on both rigid and flexible materials. Thanks to the non-contact nature of the slot-die coating process, all our tools are compatible with both smooth, polished substrates, as well as rough surfaces such as textured Si wafers for tandem PV applications.

Our slot-dies have received years of optimization towards excellent flow properties and chemical compatibility with even the harshest printed solar inks, such as low pH PEDOT formulations, while offering low dead volumes to minimize hazardous material exposure and costly material waste.

Heating of the syringe, slot-die, and substrate enables excellent control over solution viscosity, solubility, and drying behavior, while our air knife accessory allows for advanced perovskite processing via N₂ quenching.

Our simple laptop interface gives excellent control over key experimental parameters and enables easy operation of our tools inside a nitrogen or argon glovebox. Finally, when you’ve optimized your proof-of-concept coating samples, we make it easy to transition to full roll-to-roll coating with our customizable pilot lines.

A wide variety of photovoltaic devices have been demonstrated since the 1800’s, though modern silicon-based solar panels have only risen to prominence since their discovery at Bell Laboratories in the 1950’s. Today, Si-based PV dominate the market, boasting low production costs, power conversion efficiencies (PCE) around 25%, and a typical expected lifetime of 25 years.

While these benefits have been critical to the rise of solar power, Si-based modules also exhibit notable drawbacks. Energy-intensive manufacturing, heavy weight, physical rigidity, and a theoretical maximum PCE limit of 29.8% are all limitations that have spurred research into next-gen PV devices with enhanced performance in these areas.

Regardless of whether such devices contain polymers, perovskites, quantum dots, or a combination of these, scalable manufacturing of large area devices at high throughput speeds is critical to realizing their benefits in our energy infrastructure. Slot-die coating is therefore a frontrunning solution for manufacturing these next-gen PV technologies via roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet production lines, offering an unmatched combination of precision, control, and scale in high quality thin film coating applications.