Murata has been researching, developing and marketing silver paste for solar cells since the inception stage, way before they became a household name. Coming up with material technology to bond a semiconductive silicon substrate and a silver electrode to output electric power, while minimizing the power loss, has been a major goal since the beginning. It will not be an overstatement to say that accumulations of each and every technology to reduce electric loss contributed to the permeation of solar cells today. Murata has not only strived to improve the characteristics of conventional lead-containing silver paste, but also developed the lead-free "naturalistic" silver paste.
Another key factor in improving power generation efficiency was enlarging the light-receiving area over the silicon substrate by limiting the area a silver electrode occupies. We have developed and implemented silver paste, making it possible to enlarge the light-receiving area by narrowing the line width of silver electrodes, and preventing electric loss by making the silver electrodes thicker. We are also trying to contribute to the coming of a new energy society, by developing via paste to move a section of a silver electrode to the reverse side of the silicon substrate (metal wrap-through technology*).