Making the Invisible Visible: New Luminescence Inspection Technology for PV Production

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Claude Clifton Norton
5 years ago
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Breaking the limits of solar inspection Making the Invisible Visible: New Luminescence Inspection Technology for PV Production One of the most effective ways of increasing the quality and lowering

With its state-of-the-art luminescence technology ISRA SOLAR VISION, a business unit of ISRA VISION AG, Darmstadt, Germany, breaks the limit of optical inspection: The machine vision specialist s

1 Breaking the limits of solar inspection Making the Invisible Visible: New Luminescence Inspection Technology for PV Production One of the most effective ways of increasing the quality and lowering the production costs of crystalline silicon solar cells and modules is the application of high-efficiency inspection systems. With its state-of-the-art luminescence technology ISRA SOLAR VISION, a business unit of ISRA VISION AG, Darmstadt, Germany, breaks the limit of optical inspection: The machine vision specialist s electroluminescence and photoluminescence technologies capture defects that are invisible to the human eye. The new YIELDMASTER product line offers the first inspection solution that enables PV manufacturers to avoid rejected products due to high false detection rates. The systems provide the industry s fastest and most precise luminescence inspection and allow manufacturers to meet increased output and quality goals. By means of applying the new SOLARSCAN- YIELDMASTER PL they benefit from reduced production costs, an up to three percent increase in maximum-quality yield and thus significant competitive advantages in the highly competitive PV market more than enough reasons to apply the smart luminescence inspection technology. Today s challenges in photovoltaic production are efficiency optimization and reduction of manufacturing costs. Especially luminescence-based inspection methods such as Electroluminescence (EL) and Photoluminescence (PL) open up new dimensions of quality Page 1

2 assurance in the industrial PV production. In combination with the new imaging technology YIELDMASTER, the luminescence inspection is the fastest and most precise solution to capture damages in Si wafers, cells and modules that are invisible to the human eye. They would otherwise stay undetected during the manufacturing process and cause high rejections and material losses or faster degration of the modules. Luminescence: Have a Look inside the Solar Wafers and Cells Luminescence is an optical phenomenon which describes a material s emittance of light in the near-infrared range (NIR) when excited with voltage (EL) or light (PL). This wavelength range is invisible to the human eye and thus cannot be captured by standard visual inspection. The irradiation can only be detected by highly sensitive NIR cameras and analyzed with special image-processing software. The resulting luminescence image enables a look into the cell : It reveals microcracks, fractures, inhomogeneity, inactive areas and finger interruptions. The innovative YIELDMASTER imaging technology creates best images and thus provides a previously unattainable level of accuracy. High-Speed High-Accuracy Inspection for a 3 % Increase of A- Grade Yield The unique new feature of ISRA s luminescence inspection is an accuracy that has not been achieved by any other inspection system so far. Its imaging process precisely distinguishes between real defects that reduce the module performance and false defects such as grain boundaries and impurities in the polycrystalline silicon. Only if real defects are detected, the cells are downgraded. The inspection Page 2

3 technology reduces the false detection rate by more than a factor of six to under 0.5 percent. Consequently, manufacturers benefit from a direct increase of higher quality yield because less immaculate modules are sorted out as unusable. In the PV string production the luminescence inspection allows the identification of process problems right after they have occurred, enabling manufacturers to react immediately. This way, defective cells can even be fixed instead of discarding the complete string. The results are: a reduced material loss by a factor of six and an increase of maximum-quality yield by up to three percent. For solar modules, ISRA offers the fastest EL inspection at triple speed with the highest defect classification accuracy and the lowest false detection rates resulting in the avoidance of defective or underperforming modules. This way, the state-of-the-art luminescence inspection enables manufacturers to achieve higher quality and lower production losses which result in an increased efficiency in Si solar module production. The luminescence inspection with YIELDMASTER can be used for quality control before and after the lamination process. The technology can easily be adapted to multiple specifications and be implemented at many stages within the manufacturing process, starting with the inspection of Si wafers and ending with the lifetime estimation of Si modules. Luminescence Inspection Leads to Higher Production Efficiency and Guarantees Competitive Advantages PV manufacturers are continuously looking for possibilities to offer higher-quality products and to reduce manufacturing costs. The most effective means to achieve these goals are innovative inspection tools. The imaging technology YIELDMASTER, PL and EL inspection Page 3

4 provides the most accurate and lowest false defect detection and therefore lowest false downgrading rates. The new systems allow PV manufacturers to control, document and increase their product quality. They benefit from a significant reduction of the production of defective or underperforming modules, leading to remarkable cost savings through the reduction of material losses. ISRA s state-of-the-art inspection technologies offer companies in the solar industry the possibility to detect and sort out only those products that are actually defective. This increases quality and yield by up to three percent while lowering costs essential advantages in today s highly competitive PV market. Images 383_1.jpeg Efficient optical inspection with YIELDMASTER EL - Cell Page 4

5 383_2.jpg Electroluminescence image after false color analysis for module 383_3.jpg Photoluminescence image after false color analysis of a mono cell Page 5

Measurement Guide. Solarzentrum Stuttgart GmbH Rotebühlstr. 145, Stuttgart

Measurement Guide. Solarzentrum Stuttgart GmbH Rotebühlstr. 145, Stuttgart Solarzentrum Stuttgart GmbH Rotebühlstr. 145, 70197 Stuttgart www.solarzentrum-stuttgart.com Tel.: +49 (0) 711 31589433 Fax.: +49 (0) 711 31589435 Table of Contents Table of Contents... 1 1 Quick Facts...