Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology Phase 2B: Spheral Solar(TM) Technology: Final Subcontract Report, 24 January 1994 - 23 January 1995

This report describes work performed by Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) to improve Spheral Solar{trademark} technology product quality and to accelerate the scale-up of production, resulting in substantial reductions in manufacturing costs. The Spheral Solar{trademark} manufacturing sequence is divided into three major process areas: sphere fabrication, cell building, and module assembly. Theobjective was to conduct parallel activities to address significant portions of the Spheral Solar{trademark} PV cell and module manufacturing process. Included were tasks to (1) increase the efficiency of the spheres, cells, and modules; (2) increase the yield and throughput of spheres and cells; (3) increase the fabricated cell reliability; and (4) reduce cell and module labor costs. Studieswere also performed on module producibility, module production line flows, increased automation, and required module specifications. TI made excellent progress in continued process development on the current pilot line. Critical higher risk pieces of production-scale equipment were added to the line for early problem identification, redesign, and process modification. Other sub-processes hadproduction scale equipment concepts developed and prototyped.