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Mechanical Strength of Silicon Solar Wafers Characterized by Ring-On-Ring Test in Combination with Digital Image Correlation

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EPD Congress 2015

Abstract

Avoiding wafer breakage is a big challenge in the photovoltaic silicon industry, limiting production yield and further price reduction. Special fracture strength tests suitable for thin silicon solar wafers and solar cells, to be used in combination with Weibull statistics, finite-element (FE) modelling and digital image correlation have been developed in order to study the mechanical stability of solar wafers. The results show that removal of the saw damage significantly increases the strength of crystalline silicon wafers. Furthermore, it was found that silicon crystallinity and the location where the wafer is extracted from the cast Si ingot have a significant effect on the strength, namely samples taken from the bottom of the ingot are 30% stronger than those taken from the top. The study also showed that there is a decrease in fracture strength when an anti-reflective SiNx coating is applied, which is caused by high thermal stresses.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials innovation institute M2i, Delft, The Netherlands

    V. A. Popovich

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    V. A. Popovich, W. Geerstma, M. Janssen & I. M. Richardson

  3. Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, Solar Energy, PV Module Technology, Petten, The Netherlands

    I. J. Bennett

Authors
  1. V. A. Popovich
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  2. W. Geerstma
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  3. M. Janssen
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  4. I. J. Bennett
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  5. I. M. Richardson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technology and R&D, USA

    James A. Yurko (Vice President, co-founder of Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation and Electrolytic Research Corporation) (Vice President, co-founder of Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation and Electrolytic Research Corporation)

  2. Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation and Electrolytic Research Corporation, USA

    James A. Yurko (Vice President, co-founder of Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation and Electrolytic Research Corporation) (Vice President, co-founder of Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation and Electrolytic Research Corporation)

  3. Department of Materials Science Engineering & Engineering, MIT, USA

    Antoine Allanore (T.B. King Assistant Professor of Metallurgy) (T.B. King Assistant Professor of Metallurgy)

  4. Advanced High Strength Materials Lab, Texas, USA

    Laura Bartlett (director) (director)

  5. University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

    Jonghyun Lee (research assistant professor) (research assistant professor)

  6. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China

    Lifeng Zhang (professor and the dean) (professor and the dean)

  7. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTNU, Norway

    Gabriella Tranell (Associate Professor and Deputy Head, acting director) (Associate Professor and Deputy Head, acting director)

  8. Norwegian Centre for Renewable Energy, Norway

    Gabriella Tranell (Associate Professor and Deputy Head, acting director) (Associate Professor and Deputy Head, acting director)

  9. Silicon Products GmbH, Germany

    Yulia Meteleva-Fischer (R&D engineer) (R&D engineer)

  10. Al Isra University, Jordan

    Shadia Ikhmayies (associate professor) (associate professor)

  11. Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD), Singapore

    Arief Suriadi Budiman (leading a group researching nanomaterials and nanomechanics) (leading a group researching nanomaterials and nanomechanics)

  12. metallurgical engineering department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA

    Prabhat Tripathy (adjunct professorship) (adjunct professorship)

  13. Separations Department, Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC), Idaho National Laboratory (INL), USA

    Guy Fredrickson (manager) (manager)

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© 2015 TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society)

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Popovich, V.A., Geerstma, W., Janssen, M., Bennett, I.J., Richardson, I.M. (2015). Mechanical Strength of Silicon Solar Wafers Characterized by Ring-On-Ring Test in Combination with Digital Image Correlation. In: Yurko, J.A., et al. EPD Congress 2015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48214-9_28

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