Up to now, SPS has entered the supply chain of nearly 50 perovskite and photovoltaic companies such as GCL Optoelectronics.

36kr learned that recently, Precision System (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SPS"), a R&D and manufacturer of slot coating equipment, has completed tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing, with the participation of Zaishi Capital, Yida Capital, Lingang Frontier, Richu Capital and Jiuwei Investment. The financing funds will be mainly used for product research and development and expanded operation.

SPS was incorporated in 2016 in Jiading, Shanghai. The company provides R&D, pilot and mass production of a series of precision solution coating equipment, systems and overall solutions, and is committed to solving the bottleneck problem of upstream core equipment in perovskite solar cells, flat panel displays, integrated circuit chips and other industries.

It is reported that, there are a total of 6 X 100MW perovskite pilot lines in China that use slot coating technology to prepare perovskite functional layers, of which 5 pilot lines use SPS slot coating equipment, and the other 1 adopts Japan's Toray scheme.

Perovskite is widely considered as the third-generation photovoltaic cell technology, which has the advantages of higher theoretical efficiency (up to 36%) and lower cost (up to 1/10 of the cost of crystalline silicon) compared with the current mainstream crystalline silicon cells. As the conversion efficiency of crystalline silicon cells gradually approaches the theoretical limit, perovskites are a clear and clear iterative direction of photovoltaic cells, which bears the important task of further reducing the LCOE of photovoltaics.

At present, the perovskite cell industry is in the early stage of industrialization from 0 to 1. The slit coater is one of the key equipment for the preparation of photovoltaic perovskite cells, which has an important impact on the efficiency and life of perovskite cells.

In terms of manufacturing process, perovskites are completely different from crystalline silicon cells, but are very close to OLED panel preparation. Therefore, the perovskite slit coating equipment has technical homology with the semiconductor display and integrated circuit advanced packaging coating equipment. Due to the first-mover advantage in the field of semiconductor integrated circuits, Japanese and South Korean equipment companies are currently in the leading position and leading companies such as Toray, DNS, Sino-foreign furnaces, and South Korea's SEMES are also the targets of domestic enterprises.

"The slot die coater is a nano-scale precision equipment, and its important components from the coating head, liquid supply pump to the motion platform have very high precision requirements." Wang Jinshan, chairman of SPS, told 36Kr that the major challenges of slit coating equipment lie in mechanical design, electrical control and process commissioning, and it is difficult to accumulate technical know-how without a long enough time.

According to Wang Jinshan, SPS has been involved in the field of slit coating equipment for a long time, and has delivered the first OLED dual-coating head pilot coating equipment in 2017, with rich research and development experience. After that, SPS entered the field of photovoltaic perovskite, and through digestion, absorption and continuous innovation, it launched large-size slit coating equipment, and gradually accepted by the downstream market.

In 2021, SPS defeated Toray of Japan and MANZ of Germany in the bidding to become the supplier of the world's first 100MW perovskite line, the first set of large-size (~G5) slit coating equipment.

"Before SPS, China's large-size slot die coating equipment resource was import only." Wang Jinshan told 36kr that the technical indicators of SPS's large-size slit coating equipment have reached the world-class level, and the cost advantage is much higher than Japanese and Korean enterprises.

It is reported that up to now, SPS has entered the supply chain of nearly 50 perovskite and photovoltaic companies such as GCL Optoelectronics. At the beginning of 2024, SPS will also export the three-piece equipment for coating, vacuum drying, and annealing to overseas.

At present, perovskite is a key technology that countries around the world are tackling, and European, American and Japanese countries that have failed in crystalline silicon cell technology are trying to overtake in this field. Wang Jinshan believes that China will hold leading position in perovskite from the perspective of manufacturing costs, supply chain and policy support, and the development of photovoltaic manufacturing industry will also drive equipment progress.

In order to further reduce costs and increase efficiency, SPS is also actively promoting the localization of parts. Wang Jinshan said that SPS will strive to increase the domestic production rate of key components from the current 70% to more than 95% in 3-5 years, and truly realize the localization of high-end equipment supply chain.

It is worthy mentioning that the downstream market of coating equipment is not limited to perovskites, but also widely used in flat panel display (LCD, OLED, QLED), IC advanced packaging (FOWLP, FOPLP), flexible and printed electronics and other high-tech fields. SPS not only focuses on the perovskite market, but also makes efforts in the IC packaging and flat panel display markets, and its downstream customers include leading companies such as Huaxing Optoelectronics, Visionox, and Tianma.

2023 is known as the first year of the industrialization of perovskite cells, and a number of domestic photovoltaic perovskite projects have been implemented, making great progress in the journey of industrialization 0-1. Wang Jinshan predicts that in 2024, 10 100-megawatt pilot lines with different processes for perovskite cells will be implemented, further accelerating the industrialization process of perovskite.

"The conversion efficiency of crystalline silicon cells has a ceiling (about 27%), and it is impossible to complete the historical mission of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and it has become a consensus in the industry to rely on perovskite cells in the end." Wang Jinshan told 36Kr that SPS's vision is to become a world-class leading enterprise in high-precision coating and a wider range of fields, and will continue to deepen research and development in the future, accelerate the mass production process of China's perovskite industry, and contribute to the dual carbon goal.