Equipment for Solar Wafer, Solar Cell and Solar Module

Production
A typical silicon solar cell consists of a photoactive p/n junction formed on the
surface, a front ohmic contact stripe and fingers, a back ohmic contact that covers
the entire back surface, and an antireflection coating on the front surface.

For silicon solar cell production either poly-crystalline or mono-crystalline

material is used. Poly-crystalline silicon for photo-voltaic applications is normally
produced by casting methods while mono-crystalline silicon is prepared in a
Czochralski growing process.

The poly-crystalline or mono-crystalline ingots are cut to wafers. Poly-crystalline

material is mostly cut to square wafers, while mono-crystalline material is used to
produce round wafers. In many cases square material with rounded edges is
prepared from round wafers in order to get a denser packing of the solar cells in the
solar module.

Manufacturing of solar cells can be devided in 4 sections:

 Manufacturing of pure silicon, starting from reduction of quarz sand with

carbon, cleaning of the raw silicon by transfer to trichlorosilane and
destillation of it and finally deposition of poly-silicon under hydrogen
atmosphere.
 Manufacturing of mono or poly-crystalline crystals or blocks and cutting it
to silicon wafers.
 Manufacturing of the solar cells.
 Manufacturing of solar modules from the solar cells.

Manufacturing of the starting material can be done only by the large silicon
manufacturers and is therefore not explained on this page in detail. All further
manufacturing steps are described below. You can receive more detailed
information for many productions steps by following the links in the text..
 Solar Wafer
Manufacturing
Czochralski crystal
growing (mono-
crystalline)
and ingot casting
(poly-crystalline)
of p-doped, Boron-
containing Silicon

Cutting of columns
using a wire saw

Wafer sawing using

a wire saw.
A complete block
can be cut at a time.

Solar Cell
Manufacturing
Texturing, KOH-
etching
for increasing the
surface and
increasing the light
absorption

n-doping with
phosphorus (POCl3)
and diffusion in a
diffusion furnace
for formation of the
photo diode and p/n-
junction
 PSG-etching with
hydrofluoric acid HF
for removal of the
surface oxide

Anti reflection
coating ARC with
Si3N4
in PECVD-
equipment
for improving the
light incidence angle

Contact formation by
printing metal paste
on the cell, using a
screen printing
machine.
On the front side
silber fingers are
formed while the
backside is covered
completely with an
aluminum layer.

Firing Furnace for

metal film hardening.

Solar Module
Manufacturing
Tabbing and
stringing

Layup on the glass

and interconnecting,
bussing
 Electric inspection

EVA sheet and back

sheet loading

Laminating
equipment

Edge taping and

module framing

Testing and Packing

In order to setup a continuous production line, of course a lot of automation

equipment is necessary also.