Automated Solar Cell Assembly Teamed Process Resesarch: Final Subcontract Report, 6 January 1993 - 31 October 1995

This report describes work performed by Spire Corporation over a 34-month program. The work included the development of a completely new processing system that demonstrated the program objective of developing high yield, high throughput, fully automated processes for tabbing and interconnecting thin and standard silicon solar cells. High yield, low-stress processes were developed for handlingcells fabricated from thin silicon wafers. The new system incorporates new automated processes for cell loading, cell aligning, cell inspection, ribbon handling (ribbon feeding, forming, cutting to length), flux application, ribbon-to-cell soldering, cell string handling, and in-line string I-V testing. The system incorporates flexible automation techniques to enable production of a variety ofmodule designs with minimal mechanical adjustments or tooling changes. A cost anaylsis comparing manual, the new semiautomated, and the new fully automated processes indicated $0.45/W for the manual case, $0.163/W for the semi-automated case, and $0.087/W using the fully automated equipment.