ACT Aurora Control Technologies Corp. is pleased to announce that it has achieved successful results in its joint research project with the International Solar Energy Research Center Konstanz (ISC Konstanz). As described in the Companys March news release announcing the project, the objectives were to assess Auroras DecimaTM technology for its current use in inline solar cell production measurement and also to research its potential for a range of future applications.
During the project, the impact of a broad range of variations that occur in a solar cell production line were examined, such as changes to material quality, variations in texture, variations in wafer orientation, relative orientation in the ingot, perturbations to phosphorus doping, and variations in ambient conditions such as room illumination and room temperature. The Decima was tested with both multi- and mono-crystalline (CZ) silicon substrates.
The tests confirmed that the Decima measurement tool is sensitive to emitter dopant content and its distribution over the wafer, said Dr. Eckard Wefringhaus, Managing Director, Quality Management, at ISC Konstanz. The Decima's measurements are correlated to sheet resistance and to certain physical wafer properties. In cooperation with Aurora, we have also investigated potential applications for the Decima technology in PV wafer surface analysis and inline measurement."
Our work with ISC Konstanz has been very fruitful. Their independent confirmation of the Decimas emitter dopant measurement capability under a variety of production conditions has been a particularly important step, said Steve Blaine, Auroras Vice President of Engineering. We have used the project findings to significantly improve the Decimas accuracy, and in our technical interactions with PV cell manufacturers.
Aurora continues to work with ISC Konstanz and will be presenting results of Decima testing and technology advancements at the 27th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) in Frankfurt, Germany from September 24 to 28, 2012.
