Machine vision aids solar-cell inspection

摘要

As manufacturers of solar cells face pressure to drive down costs, they arc turning to higher-volume automated manufacturing, accompanied by high-speed inspection to increase yields and improve the quality of their products.rnInspection of photovoltaic solar wafers and cells is required throughout the solar-cell production process. For example, KLA-Tencor equipment inspects at several steps in the solar-cell production line, from incoming wafers to finished cells, said Jeff Donnelly, group VP of the growth and emerging markets group for KLA-Tencor. "We examine incoming bare wafers to determine their dimensions and inspect them for various defects, such as stains and mi-crocracks," he said. "We also conduct in-line cell inspection at different process steps for excursion monitoring and to enable immediate interventions in case there are production problems, such as a defective print screen. Finally, our systems are used in the cell classifiers for final sorting and binning of completed cells."