High-volume manufacturing of flexible and lightweight CIGS solar cells

Progress in scaling up CIGS thin film solar cell production at a new Global Solar manufacturing line is reported. A new plant with high throughput tools will increase capacity from 4MW p /yr to 40MW p /yr in 2008. The processes applied to make the product and the status of the manufacturing processe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Britt, J.S., Wiedeman, S., Schoop, U., Verebelyi, D.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Coatings
Costs
Electronic switching systems
Flexible manufacturing systems
Manufacturing automation
Manufacturing processes
Photovoltaic cells
Production facilities
Substrates
Transistors
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:Progress in scaling up CIGS thin film solar cell production at a new Global Solar manufacturing line is reported. A new plant with high throughput tools will increase capacity from 4MW p /yr to 40MW p /yr in 2008. The processes applied to make the product and the status of the manufacturing processes during the start-up stage will be reported. Investigations of tool capability will be presented. The tool cycle times and coating uniformity have been investigated to ensure production readiness. Satisfactory capability has been demonstrated for all coating processes and large area conversion efficiencies greater than 10% have been independently demonstrated through substitution in the first-generation production line.
ISSN:0160-8371
DOI:10.1109/PVSC.2008.4922503