The courses offered by the Solar Academy include practical instructions on 6 inch cell process equipment. The current line has the following components:
Wet chemistry - texturing:
The efficiency of solar cells is strongly determined by the etching processing of the Si wafers. Trainees will learn about saw damage removal and surface texturing on the inline texture etch equipment.
Emitter deposition and diffusion:
The resistance, uniformity and reproducibility of the emitter layer plays a major role in achieving high solar cell efficiencies. The quality of the emitter layer is in turn determined by the diffusion processing parameters, particularly time and temperature. Trainees will learn the relation between the resistance and diffusion parameters and how to optimize the emitter diffusion process.
Phosphor glass removal:
Before proceeding with cell processing, the phosphor glass which is formed during the diffusion process, must be removed by chemical etching.
PECVD (anti-reflection coating):
The anti-reflection coating consisting of a thin layer of silicon nitride, is deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition, PECVD. Trainees will learn about the relation between PECVD conditions and ARC quality and thickness and its influence on cell performance.
Contact printing and firing oven:
Contact printing is done on screen printers. Further processing takes place in a firing oven. The firing conditions are critical to the contact quality. Width, height and resistance of the contacts are related to the printing and firing process conditions.