Handbook

Sufficient theory relating to the operating principles of solar cells is covered to give an appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of the dominant commercial cell technologies. Trends in commercial cell technology and the corresponding manufacturing processes and environment are considered. The impact of various processing and device parameters on performance, yields and product reliability are studied. Insight is given into complete production processes for both screen-printed solar cells and buried contact solar cells. In-line quality control techniques are studied with laboratory classes used to give students first-hand experience in their use as well as exposing them to manufacturing processes. Students will also be given the opportunity to take control of the "virtual production line" to adjust the equipment controls and processing parameters to try and optimize performance and maximize yields, etc. In-line quality control procedures are available to the student to aid in this optimization and will prove to be particularly useful in identifying and rectifying computer generated faults associated with the production. Other laboratory work focuses on the use, measurement and analysis of encapsulated modules of cells. Modules with a range of faults are examined and techniques for fault diagnosis developed.