Investigation of welded interconnection of large-area wraparound contacted silicon solar cells. Final report

Technical Report · Wed Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984

OSTI ID:5633922

Lott, D R

An investigation was conducted to evaluate the welding and temperature cycle testing of large-area 5.9 x 5.9 wraparound silicon solar cells utilizing printed circuit substrates with SSC-155 interconnect copper metals and the LMSC Infrared Controlled weld station. An initial group of 5 welded modules containing Phase 2 developmental 5.9 x 5.9 cm cells were subjected to cyclical temperatures of + or 80 C at a rate of 120 cycles per day. Anomalies were noted in the adhesion of the cell contact metallization; therefore, 5 additional modules were fabricated and tested using available Phase I cells with demonstrated contact integrity. Cycling of the latter module type through 12,000 cycles indicated the viability of this type of lightweight flexible array concept. This project demonstrated acceptable use of an alternate interconnect copper in combination with large area wraparound cells and emphasized the necessity to implement weld pull as opposed to solder pull procedures at the cell vendors for cells that will be interconnected by welding.

• Research Organization: Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (USA); Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5633922
• Report Number(s): N-85-19519; NASA-CR-174438; JPL-9950-975
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
ADHESION
COPPER
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
JOINING
METALS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PRINTED CIRCUITS
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELL ARRAYS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SUBSTRATES
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
TESTING
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
WELDING