Cast polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic module manufacturing technology improvements. Annual subcontract report, 1 January 1996--31 December 1996
- Solarex Corp., Frederick, MD (United States)
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 same capacity 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 prototype unit 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.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States); Solarex Corp., Frederick, MD (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-83CH10093
- OSTI ID:
- 541852
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/SR--520-23623; ON: DE98000764
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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