Imaging Study of Multi-Crystalline Silicon Wafers Throughout the Manufacturing Process: Preprint

Conference · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2011.6186549· OSTI ID:1019171

Johnston, Steve; Yan, Fei; Zaunbracher, Katherine; Al-Jassim, Mowafak; Sidelkheir, Omar.; Blosse, Alain

Imaging techniques are applied to multi-crystalline silicon bricks, wafers at various process steps, and finished solar cells. Photoluminescence (PL) imaging is used to characterize defects and material quality on bricks and wafers. Defect regions within the wafers are influenced by brick position within an ingot and height within the brick. The defect areas in as-cut wafers are compared toimaging results from reverse-bias electroluminescence and dark lock-in thermography and cell parameters of near-neighbor finished cells. Defect areas are also characterized by defect band emissions. The defect areas measured by these techniques on as-cut wafers are shown to correlate to finished cell performance.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1019171
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-5200-50724; TRN: US201114%%659
• Resource Relation: Conference: Presented at the 37th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 37), 19-24 June 2011, Seattle, Washington
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
BRICKS
DEFECTS
ELECTROLUMINESCENCE
MANUFACTURING
PERFORMANCE
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
SILICON
SOLAR CELLS
THERMOGRAPHY
PV
multi-crystalline silicon
solar cells
imaging