A analysis consortium has devised a proof of idea for a manufacturing line with a throughput of 15,000 to twenty,000 wafers per hour, which is double the same old quantity.
The group of plant producers, metrology corporations and analysis establishments is being led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Photo voltaic Vitality Techniques ISE and was established to cut back manufacturing prices and alleviate provide bottlenecks as a way to deploy growing quantity of photo voltaic.
This might not solely enhance efficiencies and prices, the researchers stated, but in addition render European manufacturing extra aggressive with China because the area seems to be to ascertain its personal PV manufacturing infrastructure.
The doubling of throughput was all the way down to “enhancements to a number of particular person course of steps”, stated the researchers, who will likely be presenting particulars of their outcomes at this week’s eighth World Convention on Photovoltaic Vitality Conversion in Milan, Italy.
New strategies noticed researchers enact an ‘on-the-fly laser gear’, which permits excessive velocity processing of enormous wafers as they transfer at velocity underneath the laser scanner, in addition to rotary display printing as an alternative of the present normal technique of flatbed screening for the metallisation of photo voltaic cells.
The researchers additionally sought to enhance stack diffusion and oxidisation. Photo voltaic cells require in a different way doped sections and the researchers mixed the diffusion course of and the thermal oxidisation of the wafers into one step, which means wafers are now not positioned individually however stacked on high of one another to be processed within the furnace. This resulted in throughput growing by an element of two.4.
Subsequent, they appeared to ascertain sooner inline furnace processes. Customary furnace processes wherein the silicon photo voltaic cell is shaped on each side in inline furnaces require a considerable heating chamber to extend throughput. As a substitute, the consortium employed a belt velocity that was thrice sooner and resulted in a big ramp up in throughput with out compromising the effectivity of the photo voltaic cell.
Lastly, for the characterisation of the entire photo voltaic cells, the consortium devised two ideas: a contactless technique and a technique utilizing sliding contacts. “This makes it doable to maintain up a steady velocity of 1.9 meters per second whereas measuring the cells, with the workforce demonstrating nice measurement accuracy for each ideas,” the consortium stated, including {that a} patent had been filed for the contactless technique.
“In 2021, 78% of all silicon photo voltaic cells had been produced in China,” defined Ralf Preu, division director of PV Manufacturing Expertise at Fraunhofer ISE. “In an effort to deploy extra photo voltaic installations as rapidly as doable and to make our provide chains extra sturdy, Europe ought to re-establish its personal manufacturing centres for high-efficiency photo voltaic cells. “
“By boosting throughput and making manufacturing expertise extra resource-efficient, we are able to lower prices significantly and unlock sustainability potential that we can leverage because of course of information and engineering excellence.”
“For some processes, established manufacturing workflows wanted to be accelerated, different processes wanted to be reinvented from scratch,” stated Florian Clement, challenge supervisor at Fraunhofer ISE, which not too long ago laid declare to a brand new photo voltaic cell effectivity report of 47.6%. “In comparison with the numbers we at the moment see, the manufacturing programs developed throughout the scope of the challenge obtain no less than double the throughput.”
