Cast Polycrystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module Manufacturing Technology Improvements: Annual Subcontract Report, 1 January 1996 - 31 December 1996

    Research output: NRELSubcontract Report

    Abstract

    This report describes Solarex's accomplishments during this phase of the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) program. During this reporting period, Solarex researchers converted 79% of production casting stations to increase ingot size and operated them at equivalent yields and cell efficiencies; doubled the casting capacity at 20% the cost of buying new equipment to achieve the samecapacity increase; operated the wire saws in a production mode with higher yields and lower costs than achieved on the ID saws; purchased additional wire saws; developed and qualified a new wire-guide coating material that doubles the wire-guide lifetime and produces significantly less scatter in wafer thickness; ran an Al paste back-surface-field process on 25% of all cells in manufacturing;completed environmental qualification of modules using cells produced by an all-print metallization process; qualified a vendor-supplied Tedlar/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) laminate to replace the combination of separate sheets of EVA and Tedlar backsheet; substituted RTV adhesive for the 3M Very High Bond tape after several field problems with the tape; demonstrated the operation of a prototypeunit to trim/lead attach/test modules; demonstrated the use of light soldering for solar cells; demonstrated the operation of a wafer pull-down system for cassetting wet wafers; and presented three PVMaT-related papers at the 25th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference.
    Original languageAmerican English
    PublisherNational Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
    Number of pages36
    StatePublished - 1997

    Bibliographical note

    Work performed by Solarex, Frederick, Maryland

    NREL Publication Number

    • NREL/SR-520-23623

    Keywords

    • automated cell handling
    • cast polycrystalline silicon
    • module assembly
    • photovoltaics (PV)
    • PVMAT

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