Current Entries for Best process technology c-Si cell manufacturing lines

J. Schmalz GmbH’s new development, the Schmalz Wafer Gripper SWG, is particularly suitable for the extremely fast, precise and damage-free handling of highly sensitive wafer and solar cells.
The SWG has decisive advantages compared with manual grippers, mechanical grippers, conventional vacuum grippers or floating suction pads employing Bernoulli’s principle regarding process safety, damage minimisation and cycle times.

BakerClean™ PV-160 Solar Cell Surface Modifier is a wet chemical surface modifier applicable to in-line manufacturing processes of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells.
Following emitter formation, BakerClean PV-160 surface modifier’s modification of cell surface properties delivers higher value solar cells by improving cell conversion efficiency.

The Sixtron SunBox is a silane-free coating system for front-side antireflective and passivation coating processes in c-Si solar cell manufacturing. Using a unique silicon carbide-based chemistry, the SunBox is a “plug & play” solution for crystalline silicon cell manufacturing lines that matches the efficiency of today’s most advanced antireflective and passivation coating systems while completely eliminating the significant safety, reliability and cost issues associated with pyrophoric silane gas.

The first step of the automated solar module production process is the soldering of the solar cells in to a string. During the feeding of the cells our machine vision system VINSPECsolar inspects the cells for optical quality criteria. This inspection takes place before the integration of the cells in to a module. The machine vision system VINSPECsolar records the exact position of the cell and calculates the difference between the target and current position. The corrected coordinates are submitted to the handling system. Thereby optimal handling of the cell is guaranteed. Additionally VINSPECsolar inspects the shape of the cell and the quality of the printing on the front side.  Solar cells of a poor quality and breakages can be picked out without delaying production. VINSPECsolar   reliable detects all relevant faults criteria and classifies them. VINSPECsolar provides a critical contribution to high product quality and distinct classification.

ChemGuard refill technology (CG1000) has been developed by Air Products to substantially reduce c-Si cell manufacturing costs.  The system eliminates the need to replace empty chemical (POCl3) containers residing inside the diffusion furnaces, which use this chemical to dope the Si wafer with N-type material. 

BTU’s MERIDIAN™ In-line Diffusion System has been specifically designed for phosphorus diffusion of silicon solar cells. Silicon wafers are coated with a phosphoric acid solution and diffused in a quartz-lined continuous furnace between 850 and 900°C.

Advent Solar introduces Ventura™ Technology, the solar industry’s only comprehensive cell-to-module solar architecture.

The DEK PVP1200 is an innovative modular screen printing platform designed to deliver high yields in the metallization process relating to the manufacture of Crystalline Silicon solar cells, while operating at the high throughput rates required by the solar cell processing sector.