AN ASSEMBLED REACTOR FOR FABRICATIONS OF THIN FILM SOLAR CELL ABSORBERS THROUGH ROLL-TO-ROLL PROCESSES

摘要

A roll-to-roll reactor, which is assembled with a heating section, a cooling section, and a series of modular buffer sections, is provided. Its length is adjustable by adding or reducing numbers of the modular buffer sections according to required reaction time and delivery speed of a continuous flexible workpiece. The reactor contains a reaction oven assembled with a series of modular thermal control components, included inside a vacuum-tight reaction chamber. The oven temperature can be precisely controlled through combinations of heating elements, cooling elements and thermocouples. The reactor can be used for annealing and reaction of various precursor films on flexible substrates under vacuum and in inert or reactive gas ambient at temperatures ranging from a room temperature to a thousand Celsius degrees. This reactor is particularly useful in manufacturing thin film solar cells such as CIGS and CdTe solar cells on flexible substrates through a continuous roll-to-roll process.