Product Reviews

  • Manz Automation's OneStep SE system

    Manz Automation’s OneStep selective emitter system boosts cell efficiencies 0.5%

    06 September 2010, 16:41

    Product Briefing Outline: Manz Automation has developed the OneStep selective emitter (SE) system for crystalline silicon solar cells. Among competing SE processes, the laser process consists of only one single process step, without any consumable usage. Investment payback is said to be less than one year, while the small footprint allows easy retrofit of existing production lines. The tool is claimed to enable cell efficiency gains of up to 0.5%.

  • CRAIC Microspectrometer

    Craic Technologies’ 20/20 PV microspectrometer measures thickness of thin-film optical

    02 September 2010, 16:47

    Product Briefing Outline: Craic Technologies has launched the 20/20 PV Microspectrometer, which is designed to measure UV-visible NIR-range transmission, absorbance, reflectance, and emission and fluorescence spectra of sample areas smaller than a micron in width. The thickness of thin films and colour spaces can also be determined. The 20/20 PV system is claimed to be the most powerful instrument from Craic Technologies.

  • Watlow EZ-ZONE ST

    Watlow improves solar cell thermal processing with precise control of tungsten lamps

    02 September 2010, 16:44

    Product Briefing Outline: Watlow has expanded the EZ-ZONE ST integrated controller family to include phase angle power switching and increased load current capabilities. The upgraded EZ-ZONE ST features single-phase solid-state relay output up from 40 to 75A and phase angle power switching with soft start to prevent high in-rush currents, load failure or blown fuses during solar cell thermal processing.

  • Edwards GXS

    GXS dry pump from Edwards improves process throughput for crystal puller and laminator

    31 August 2010, 16:50

    Product Briefing Outline: Edwards has developed a new GXS dry pump designed to support pumping requirements for silicon ingot manufacturing and laminator applications in the solar industry. The GXS dry pump can operate on as little as 3.9kW of input power (depending on the pump version) and is said to use 57% less energy than competing piston pumps.

  • Stringer TT1200

    teamtechnik’s STRINGER TT1200 is fastest on a single track

    31 August 2010, 09:55

    Product Briefing Outline: teamtechnik is launching a new, more compact STRINGER TT1200, which can solder solar cell strings at 1200 cycles per hour on just one track, making it one of the fastest in the world. teamtechnik has focused on the efficiency optimization of this stringer technology and has improved the price-performance ratio further. Other improvements include shorter set-up times and a shorter delivery time of a maximum of three months. The system’s power consumption and noise levels have also been reduced.

  • Huntsman Probimmer 77

    Huntsman Advanced Materials develops new encapsulating materials for hot climates

    25 August 2010, 10:09

    Product Briefing Outline: Huntsman has cooperated with industry partners to develop new materials and processing technologies that will enable actively temperature-controlled PV modules with increased efficiency. The ‘Araldite’ AY 4583/HY 4583 liquid system enables an energy-saving encapsulation process at low temperatures and eliminates the critical lamination process with EVA. The new technology is ideal for use in hot southern climates and deserts.

  • Bürkle PV backend

    Robert Bürkle offers flexible Back End Line system for c-Si solar cell modules

    23 August 2010, 10:32

    Product Briefing Outline: Robert Bürkle has introduced a complete flexible Back End Line for the production of crystalline solar cell modules. The company claims it has the highest throughput per square meter when based on its stack lamination platform. The line is highly flexible with the line layout (straight /U-shape) accommodated, according to individual requirements.

  • Dashboard

    Critical Manufacturing offers integrated quality management tools

    23 August 2010, 10:26

    Product Briefing Outline: Critical Manufacturing’s cmNAVIGO 2.0 Solar Edition allows photovoltaic manufacturers to combine a highly flexible and pre-customized rich set of manufacturing execution and analytical solutions with tightly integrated quality tools. The MES software is designed to have a unique modeling versatility, enabling it to respond to the most demanding and complex scenarios in manufacturing plants.

  • Trumpf’s short and ultra-short pulsed lasers for high-precision thin-film applications

    19 August 2010, 10:40

    Product Briefing Outline: Trumpf is offering user-oriented microprocessing lasers from the TruMicro Series 3000, 5000 and 7000 for an increasing number of applications for thin-film processes, including CIGS patterning steps.

  • Spartanics

    Spartanics offers laser die-cutting applications lab for materials research

    18 August 2010, 11:07

    Product Briefing Outline: The new Spartanics Laser Cutting Applications Laboratory for Materials Research enables PV product manufacturers to determine if their materials can be handled by modern laser die-cutting technologies. The lab allows those seeking to use rapidly advancing laser die-cutting technology for finishing solar panels and other solar products to send samples for engineering studies and analyses for evaluation.

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Publications

  • Photovoltaics International 14th Edition

    Photovoltaics International 14th Edition

    Published in November 2011, the 14th edition of Photovoltaics International provides a variety of technical papers from some of the industry’s stalwarts. Features include: TÜV Rheinland on junction box testing; Laser Zentrum Hannover on laser edge isolation of mc-Si cells; Calisolar on the importance of traceability; Fraunhofer ISE on EWT cells; and EPIA on Europe’s LCOE.

  • Photovoltaics International Lite, Volume 05 - 2011

    Photovoltaics International Lite, Volume 05 - 2011

    This digital interactive Lite sees Tom Cheyney follow Agua Caliente’s progress on becoming one of first truly utility-scale PV power farms, where 40–50MW (AC) will be commissioned by the end of the year. We also feature one of the world’s largest silicon thin-film PV power plants, Avenal; a report on warnings of the collapse of module prices from Solarbuzz and PI-Berlin presents tips on PV module testing. A print version of this edition will be distributed at Solar Power International 2011 in Dallas, Texas.

  • Manufacturing The Solar Future: The 2011 Production Annual

    Manufacturing The Solar Future: The 2011 Production Annual

    Manufacturing the Solar Future is the primary source guide for detailed information on the PV production process. This annual provides technical details on how the leading companies and research organizations worldwide are addressing this need by dramatically improving their manufacturing processes.

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