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INSPECTION
Breaking the cycles of waste
The rush into
Issue III 2009
the photovoltaic
market has lthough photovoltaics have been with Some steps have been made here and there but
seen some
Aus for a number of years it is only this generally depends on the individual company
relatively recently that the industry began to and the background knowledge of the staff on site.
companies rush
manufacture at the present scale and volume. In Recent research in The Netherlands suggests
in order to have
the rush to take advantage of a growing market, there is still huge savings opportunities for
-pv-management.com manufacturers needed to establish infrastructure companies that could help them reach a grid parity
working
that would lead to product and revenue target quicker than imagined.
.solar
equipment for
generation.
www
Ultrasonic Technologies Inc. (US) and RUV
production and
This rush to manufacture has meant that all Systems BV (Netherlands) did extensive research
36 may not be
available yield management tools and processes on the issue of the impact of cracking on
were not necessarily employed in the initial setting subsequent manufacturing. This work was done in
aware of further
up. This does not mean these manufacturers cut cooperation with cell and module manufacturers
cost saving
corners to produce inferior product. What it does across Europe and Asia. Ultrasonic resonance
mean is that many manufacturers have hidden vibrations (RUV) technology was used to test
potential within
improvements waiting to be revealed in their wafers and cells on cracks
their tools and
current manufacturing process flow. and their effects on
processes. RUV
breakage during
It seems like a simple production. The goal was
Systems
process. Checking the quality to determine what part of
discusses the
of incoming wafers and cells breakage during
before they go into the production is caused by
results of a
production process. It even process equipment and
recent study.
seems like a logical step in what part by the quality of
manufacturing but it may incoming products.
surprise you to know that it is still
not common in the photovoltaic RUV technology is used to
cell and module manufacturing measure residual stress
market. non destructively in full size
multicrystalline silicon
An area that is surprisingly lax is wafers used in solar cell
cracks in the device or cell, also manufacturing. RUV works
referred to as micro cracks, that by exciting the longitudinal
potentially cause wafer and cell resonance ultrasonic
breakage during the production vibrations in the test material
process and have a negative by using an external
quality effect on the entire piezoelectric transducer. This
process. Other industries, such is combined with an
as semiconductor, have shown ultrasonic probe and data
the benefit of this type of acquisition of the
proactive yield management. response makes it
Despite the constant search for suitable for in-line
incremental savings, it is an area diagnostics during
that has still not been explored to its full capacity. wafer and cell manufacturing.
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