Printing screens, methods of fabricating the same and methods of screen printing

摘要

A stencil 2 comprises a plurality of first print apertures 15 and a plurality of second print apertures 17 which intersect the first print apertures 15. The second print apertures 17 include a web 21 defining a plurality of sub-apertures 23. The first print apertures may be for printing metallization lines on wafers and the second print apertures may be for printing busbars on wafers. The stencil 2 may be used for forming silicon solar cells. The stencil 2 may be formed having two layers (7, 9, Fig.3). There may be applied a first tension (F1, Fig.1) to the first print apertures 15 and a second lower tension (F2, Fig.1) applied to the second print apertures 17. There is also provided a method of fabricating a stencil including providing a first patterning layer to a mandrel of an electro-forming apparatus and subsequently providing a second patterning layer to the first patterning layer. The first and second patterning layers may be a dry film resist.