Current Entries for Green solar manufacturing award

The Sysmex Flow Particle Image Analyzer FPIA-3000 from Malvern Instruments measures particle size and shape in wet suspensions. It is proving ideal for monitoring the deterioration of abrasive slurries used in the wire saw cutting processes in solar cell production and also for monitoring the slurry recycling process. The fast, efficient quantitative particle analysis it provides enables manufacturers to optimise slurry use and to recycle slurry without compromising final product quality. This contributes to minimising raw material use and the reduction of industrial waste.

Silicon, used to make some of the earliest photovoltaic (PV) device, is still the most popular material for solar cells. Outranked only by oxygen, silicon is also the second-most abundant element in the Earth's crust. However, to be useful as a semiconductor material in solar cells, silicon must be refined to a purity of 99.9999%. Ceilcote has become a leader in providing solutions for these complex refining processes.

Solar cell manufacturing is becoming increasingly important as an environmentally-friendly means of generating electrical power, and the growth of thin films of microcrystalline silicon will form a key part of this. The PECVD growth of this material poses a number of significant challenges regarding the treatment of the resultant exhaust gases, in terms of removing toxic, corrosive, global warming, and flammable gases safely, at low cost, whilst also minimising the environmental impact.

CVD chamber cleaning using fluorinated gases has been commonplace in semiconductor manufacturing for decades and proven to be a fast and effective alternative to wet cleaning. This process has been scaled up to deal with larger process chambers, first in TFT-LCD panel manufacture, and lately for large area thin film solar cell manufacture.
Many of the gases currently used such as Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) and Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) have high global warming potentials (GWP) [for example: 17,200 for NF3 and 23,900 for SF6]. In line with the industry need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fluorine gas (F2) has been identified as an effective alternative, having zero GWP. Restrictions exist however on large scale cylinder filling and transport for fluorine, hence it cannot be used in a typical thin film PV fab where annual gas consumption is very high.
On-site generation of F2 gas has been developed by Linde as a viable alternative, with scaleable plants available to deal with large turnkey PV production lines. Developed in the late 1990s, this proven technology has been installed at more than 20 semiconductor, LCD and solar cell production sites, including Toshiba Matsushita Display, Samsung Electronics, and LG Display.   Chamber cleaning with Linde on-site generated F2 gives thin-film manufacturers reduced cost per Watt and provides the end user with a reduced carbon footprint PV module.